Endless Night
by b.dancerle-troub
Summary: In the beginning of her fifth year, Narcissa Black starts new at Hogwarts.  In the midst of troubling times as Lord Voldemort slowly rises to power, will she ever find love?
1. Roses in the Servants

**Chapter One: Roses in the Servants**

It was a Sunday morning in London. I was more nervous than I had ever been in my life, because today was my first day at my new school, Hogwarts, after moving to England over the summer. (My sisters and I had moved because our parents had died in a car crash. We have relatives that live in London, so we thought that would be a good place to live). Previously, I had lived in a small inconsequential town in Ireland, called Tara, that's known as the most magical place on earth. I went to a different school there.

"Narcissa, hurry up or we'll miss the train!" my sister screeched loudly at me from beside the fireplace in the living room.

"Coming!" I yelled down to her. I quickly exited my quaint bedroom whose sole window had a perfect view of the West End and Big Ben*, ran down the stairs, and sprinted into the living room—only coming to a halt when I stood next to both of my sisters by the fireplace. My sisters' names are Bellatrix and Andromeda. But while they look really similar to each other, they look nothing like me, except for the fact that we're all tall and thin—I'm 5'10.''**

"Ready to go?" Bellatrix asked me. I nodded as I grabbed my chic pink el salvador bag that I always carry with me, and then I stepped into the fireplace. Before I left, I swept my eyes around the house one last time nostalgically—I had only lived there for two months, yet I knew I was going to miss the cute house with the Victorian-style columns and the stucco roof that was in the middle of London in the 20th century.

I called "King's Cross!" as Bella threw floo powder in after me.

And...with a roar of green hot flaming fire, I was gone.

* * *

><p>I suppose I should explain for all the non-Harry Potter readers out there that are reading this saga. You see—I'm magical! I'm a witch! So are my sisters, and a lot of other people. That's how I was able to step into the fireplace without getting burned and travel to a different place. The school I had attended in Tara was a school that taught me magic. Hogwarts is also a magical school, and I hear it's even better than Blarneyland! (the school that I went to in Tara, in case you couldn't figure that out.) That's mainly why I was so nervous—I was terrified that all the other students at Hogwarts would be a lot better than me at magic.<p>

Once I had finished explaining that, I had arrived at King's Cross...finally. Bright sunlight shone in through the rafters of the building I found myself in, temporarily blinding me. It wasn't until my eyes adjusted to all the light that I noticed where I was.

I was surrounded by hundreds of people. There were parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles seeing their children and grandchildren and nieces and nephews off, and there were lots of people closer to my age too—anywhere from between the ages of 11 and 17. It kind of reminded me of the time I had gone to a Draco and the Malfoys concert***, and it seemed like there were thousands of people there, all moshing to the music.

I waited for Bellatrix and Andromeda to get their bearings and step out of the fireplace behind me, and then we took off for the train. The Hogwarts' express is painted this sick cheery red color, as if Godric Gryffindor had commissioned it with the intent of brainwashing everybody into going over to the dark side. We chose a compartment at the very back of the train; in Tara, we always sat at the front of the school bus because at the back of the bus was where all the cool kids sat; so on the train, when we saw an opportunity, we took it.

I was afraid that someone would come in and talk to me, so I took out my book, _The Great Gatsby_, and started to read. I put it right up in front of my face so I wouldn't make eye contact with anybody should anybody choose to come in. Sure enough, somebody did. I looked up. I gasped. Standing on the threshold of the train compartment was the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. She had long dark black hair, piercing green catlike eyes that shone like a maharaja's emeralds, and exquisite pale skin that I could practically see through. In other words, she was the most perfect and lovely female I had ever seen in my life. My sisters looked drab and ugly in comparison—I probably looked downright hideous and revolting.

"What are you doing in our compartment?" she asked us in a curiously lilting voice. Southern Georgia, most likely Savannah, I decided after a moment of trying to place her accent. I was suddenly struck with a bolt of shyness, and so I put _The Great Gatsby_ up once again in front of my face to avoid answering her question. My voice would probably sound like an amphibian's coming right after hers anyway, or maybe just a chainsaw. Luckily, Bellatrix saved me the trouble of having to answer her by answering her herself. Bellatrix has a lower, gruffer voice that always makes her sound like a chihuahua-pitbull crossbreed about to attack. Anyway, it makes her sound like she has a lot of authority.

"We're new here, and so we just chose a compartment," Bellatrix informed the newcomer.

Andromeda got down on her knees and grabbed the hem of the girl's robes. "Please!" she said in a silkily pathetic voice, "Just tell us...what to do...where to sit. None of us yet understand the social order of this school!" Andromeda always had been the wet blanket of the family.

A boy appeared behind the girl. I gaped at him from behind my book. He was most definitely the handsomest guy I had ever seen, with curly brown hair that exploded from his head and ran down his neck in little ringlets. His shirt was slightly open in front also, so I could see that the hair continued down his neck to his tanned chest, where it clung in dark patches like undergrowth in the Amazon Rainforest.

He smirked at me. "I'll give you a poster of myself so you can stare all you want." Then everybody turned to look at me. I realized I must have been staring at him; flustered, I flung my book back up over my face.

The gorgeous girl poked him playfully. "Be nice Zephyr. These girls are new to Hogwarts and so did not know that this compartment belonged to the Death Eaters."

The Death Eaters. That must be the name of their clique. It sounded a little cheesy, but my thoughts were insignificant to the extreme when faced with their titillating beauty.

Two more people then entered the compartment—a guy and a girl. I thought they could be twins because they both looked so similar...long dark brown hair, mean chocolate-colored eyes, and they were tall, tall like me. They pretty much looked just liked the elves from Lothlorien (like, the way I pictured them, before the movie came out). They joined their friends in staring at us—well, mainly at Andromeda, because she was still clutching the first girl's dress on the floor.

She—the first girl—spoke again mellifluously. It made my ears sing. "Amycus, could you please get our guests some refreshment?"

The tall dark-haired twin suddenly conjured up a platter with seven goblets on it with a movement so fast it made me wonder if he had taken lessons from The Great Houdini. Andromeda took her seat, and then we all took a goblet. I took a sip. Whatever it was, it sure wasn't pumpkin juice. By this time, the four strangers had also sat down, and we all stared at each other. I felt really embarrassed to be there. I mean, I was really ashamed of my appearance. Here I was sitting across from four practically supermodels, and I was stuck with my sisters and my own average body.

The sound of Zephyr's voice tore me away from my everyday thoughts. "Why don't we introduce ourselves—I would love to learn your names!" He smirked at me, and I felt myself blushing fiercely. Both Andromeda and Bellatrix blush beautifully, with pink tingeing their cheeks like roses. I, on the other hand, blush like a freshwater lobster on its first date—all blotchily. Not that my sisters were blushing, only I was at that time. I was only describing them for comparison.

Bellatrix, the brave warrior, spoke up first. "I'm Bellatrix."

Andromeda next: "Andromeda."

Then everybody turned to look at me. "My name...um...oh, I'm Narcissa," I said with relief as I remembered.

Zephyr smirked at me again and then winked, and my sisters gave me strange looks.

"Well," said the first lovely raven-haired maiden in her southern drawl, "I'm Azalea."

"Zephyr!" He purred as he said this, either to make me uncomfortable or because he thought he was a cat.

"Amycus." He nodded at us, all serious-like.

"And I'm Alecto." She, like her brother, said this very seriously, and with a straight face.

"Well, now that that's all over, I think my sisters and I can go find another compartment!" I leaped up from my chair and skidaddled over to the door, but before I could open it, Zephyr was suddenly standing there in front of it. He had somehow moved faster than I could see. It was almost as if he had magical powers I knew nothing about.

"Narcissa, don't be so rude" Andromeda reprimanded me primly.

Azalea got up from where she was sitting and glided over to us. She put her hand on my arm. "Oh, stay a little while. After all, you are our guest."

She was so beautiful that I was worried she might put the Imperius curse on me if I did not obey her. In my book, beautiful = dangerous. I sat down again.

"Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Narcissa." Azalea said our names as if she was trying them out on her tongue. "You must be the Black sisters. Remind me of your years again."

I stared at her as though I was paralyzed. How did she know who we were? Who had told her about us? Had she been spying on us?

"Well," Bellatrix said gruffly, "I'm a seventh year, Andy here is a sixth year, and Cissy is a fifth year."

I blushed for a second time. It was always an embarrassment to me that our parents had had three kids in three years. It was as if they were really desperate for an heir, and then by the time I came along, they realized how hopeless life really is.

Zephyr then took his eyes off me long enough to open his mouth and talk. "We know all about you from your cousin of course. He told us how your parents died in a car crash, and then you moved to England to be closer to your relatives."

At the mention of my extended family, everybody's face darkened. Regulus was all right—he had been sorted into Slytherin, the house of our ancestors, and was doing normal Slytherinish activities. Sirius****, however, had been sorted into Gryffindor, which was pretty much the worst thing that could happen to a person. Everybody who was in Gryffindor eventually went bad. We don't talk about him anymore. And when we are forced to talk about him for some reason, we just refer to him as "_You Know Who_," or "_He Who Must Not Be Named_."

"So, tell us about the Death Eaters. Is it a club?" Bellatrix asked greedily. Bellatrix absolutely loves clubs, because you get to exclude everybody you don't like. In the Death Eater club, that would probably be everybody like me that wasn't good-looking enough.

"A club? Oh...well...yes, I suppose it is sort of like a club." Azalea and Zephyr looked at each other and started laughing. Amycus and Alecto sat quietly in the corner as if they didn't get the joke. I have to confess, I didn't get it either. I squirmed in my chair, wishing I could go back to Tara, where everything was so slow and rural and the people were so wonderfully ugly like me.

_SWOOSH!_ The door suddenly swooshed open, and Azalea and Zephyr just as suddenly stopped laughing. I gasped, and quickly put _The Great Gatsby_ over my face again. Because, standing in the doorway was the most beautiful person in the world. And I mean that this time. He made Azalea look like a magnolia plantation warthog, Zephyr look like a hairy toasted coconut, Amycus look like the granduncle of Jareth the Goblin King from Labyrinth, and Alecto look like me. I had only got to look at him for about a second before I had had to put the book up to preserve my sanity, but what I saw filled my insides with an electrifying sensation that must be similar to being electrocuted. He—the boy (was he a boy? He looked so heavenly manly to me, but as he was on the Hogwarts' Express, rationality told me that he probably was no older than me) was—so...pale! Just like the way I'd always imagined an angel to be. He had practically blinded me with his breathtaking paleness. And his hair was so long, smooth, and silky looking that I almost cried just looking at it. I yearned to run my fingers through it. But that wasn't the half of it. The sheer elegance of his physique just stunned me, and left me breathlessly trying to catch my breath. He couldn't be a human...he was much too good for any of us, especially me. He must be the physical manifestation of one of those Greek Gods, sent down from his mountain to punish my family for blemishing this compartment full of immortals with our untimely appearance. I felt sick, felt like vomiting on the floor as if that could have purged me of my sinful identity. I felt like running into his arms and begging to be taken away from this awful world. I felt...nothing.

*Big Ben is a big famous clock tower, if you were dumb enough not to know that.

** You see, people like me don't use the metric system.

*** It's a muggle-band, for real!

****My youngest cousin, for everybody out there who hasn't read the books.


	2. Light in the Voyagers

**Chapter Two: Light in the Voyagers**

I awoke to Andromeda sponging my forehead with a wet cloth she had taken out of her bag. The fabric felt like it had been hand-stitched by little nuns residing in Switzerland, so before I opened my eyes, I hoped I would open them to find an honest-to-goodness real-life angel wiping my forehead before the gateway to paradise.

Alas, it wasn't so. I was still stuck on this miserable earth.

"Ugh!" I moaned and sat up. "What happened?"

Bellatrix rolled her eyes in annoyance and aggravation. "What happened?" she repeated incredulously. "You just fainted in front of all those people, embarrassed me terribly, and so wrecked our chances of ever having a good social standing at this school.

"But...but...but..." I spluttered incomprehensively. "Didn't any of you notice that...elfin angel that came in...right before I fainted?"

Bellatrix and Andromeda looked at each other, apparently flabbergasted. I realized right then that there was something special about the Death Eaters club, and while neither of my sisters could see it, I could. I was special. I am special! I sighed and looked around me, feeling content. Then I suddenly realized that something was wrong. I didn't know what it was at first, then it hit me, with the force of the Titanic slamming into the iceberg. "Hey! Where did everybody go? The Death Eaters! I mean Azalea, Zephyr, the twins, and...that other person." I trailed off at the end, embarrassed to call him my angel again for fear that I would get laughed at.

Once again, Bellatrix and Andromeda gave each other looks. I wondered why I could never decipher what they always seemed to be silently communicating with each other.

"Well Cissy*," Andromeda snidely informed me, "They took one look at you and your twitching fainting fit and left."

"Probably in disgust," Bellatrix added on to the end of that.

I looked down at the floor and started crying. I had tried to make a good impression on all of them, but I had failed miserably. Though I shouldn't have been surprised—my entire life is a failure—one failure after another.

All of a sudden, the doors to the compartment opened. Standing there was a plain looking boy with thick black hair and glasses. He looked to be about 14 years old. "I heard that you three lovely ladies are new to Hogwarts. Would you like someone to show you around?"

"No," I said miserably. He wasn't the guy I wanted to see right now—Not. Even. Close.

"Cissy," Bellatrix ordered, "Why don't you go with—"

"—James. James Potter," he supplied us.

I sniffled. I sobbed. I tore at my hair. I really didn't feel like going with him. But Bellatrix and Andromeda just hate me, and so they forced me out of the compartment and made me go with him.

I followed him to another compartment. The whole way there, he talked animatedly about things—Hogwarts, how great rugby union is (I hate that sport!), his favorite professors, his favorite musical theatre composers, what he wanted to do after he graduated from Hogwarts, and so on. It was all very boring to me. He probably was just some common person that was never going to achieve anything great in life.

Once we got to the compartment, I saw that there were people already in it—namely, a scrawny pale faced boy**, a fat carrot-haired girl, a marinara sauce-haired girl who looked like she was anorexic, and a sallow, greasy haired boy. I immediately turned to leave, but James was there, blocking my retreat.

"Everybody," he grandly announced, "This is my new friend Narcissa Black."

The fat girl leaped up and squealed. Either she was delighted to see me, or James was a child pop-star and she was one of those annoying fan girls.

"Oh Narcissa! I'm so smashingly happy to meet you!"

Well, that answered my question.

"Narcissa," James again. Man, did he ever shut up? "I want you to meet my friends. This is Remus, Molly, Lily, and Severus."

I was practically forced into a seat by the hyperactive Molly...unfortunately, it was right next to hers.

"So, Narcissa," This time it was the girl named Lily speaking to me. Her green bunny rabbit-colored eyes gleamed as if we were sharing a secret. I shuddered. "I can't even imagine how hard it must be to begin at Hogwarts in the beginning of your fifth year. What house do you think you'll be in?"

"Slytherin of course!" I blurted out. How could she even ask me that question. How dare she insult me by acting as if I could be in a different house.

Remus and Molly shuddered slightly, but James tried to cover this up by leaping in front of them and yelling "Oh, Slytherin is a great house—that's for sure."

"Of course it is," Lily enunciated warmly. "Severus here is in Slytherin." She lightly brushed his knee with her hand. Eww.

James cleared his throat. "Yes he is, and yet we are the dearest of friends. This just goes to show that students in different houses can still be friends. Narcissa, whatever house has the honor of receiving you, I just hope we can still be friends."

"Oh, right," I replied, startled. Why was he acting so nice, I wondered. I decided that he probably just wanted to get into my pants. Ha. Just the thought of that made me laugh. I was so much better than him. It was like a Ping-Pong ball asking a bowling ball out on a date, or like Justin Bieber asking Maria Callas to marry him. Then, I suddenly got an idea. I decided to use them to get some information. "Um...I would love to be friends with all of you, because you're all so...nice. But I have a question. Earlier today on the train, I was walking down the hallway when I ran into a blonde-haired guy. He practically knocked me over, and it made me really feel hurt, because he never stopped to apologize. Do any of you have any idea who that person might be? I mean...I really want to know...because I thought we maybe could be friends." I finished this rather lamely, but nobody seemed to notice, probably because they were all lamer than a bunch of sheep jumping off the edge of the world at teatime.

They all looked at each other as if they were thinking. "Could it be that chap Gilderoy?" Remus asked. This was the first time I had heard him speak, and he had a soft, wispy voice, almost like he was part animal.

"Blimey mate! You must be right—he does have blonde hair!" Molly yelled kind of loudly, as if she were happy not to have to think anymore.

Lily fixed me with a very very serious look. However, it was hard to take _her _face too seriously. "Narcissa, I want you to promise us you'll never attempt to be friends with Gilderoy Lockhart. He's a big jerk!"

"Lily!" James chastised her, "Narcissa can be friends with whomever she wants to be friends with." He started singing: "Why can't we be friends—"

This dialogue was starting to get a little boring, which made me feel very bored. "Oh, whatever. So long suckeroos!" I leapt up, and this time there was no Zephyr standing by the door to prevent me from running out into the hallway. I ran out, tripped over some hag wheeling a trolley of candy (serves her right for getting in my way), and went to find my sisters. On the way, a voice came on over the loudspeakers: We will soon be arriving at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Thank you for riding the Hogwarts Express. Please keep all body parts inside as the train comes to a complete stop.

Finally, I thought. People started getting out of their compartments and grabbing their luggage—really, I still can't believe that we put man on the moon before we put wheels on luggage—and walking to the doors. The train suddenly stopped. It was like, one moment, we were moving, and the next moment, we weren't.

I heard a shouting voice cutting through the air. It sounded like the voice of a big hairy savage. "Firs' years an' new students! Get your runty arses this way pronto!"

That would be me, though I didn't really like his derogatory and sexist language. I made a mental note in my mind to write home to my parents as soon as possible to complain, until I remembered they were dead. I scrapped that plan.

As I hopped down the steps of the train door like a grateful ballerina (though I narrowly avoided hitting my head), the breathtaking view that was Hogwarts revealed itself to me through the clouds like a striptease artist. It kinda reminded me of Hyrule Castle. Anyway, I walked over to the Savage with my sisters and a bunch of what I presumed were first years. They, at least, certainly did have runty arses. It was at that moment, more than ever, that I was thankful for my thrilling figure.

We gathered at the edge of a lake that was next to the castle that looked like it probably was inhabited by giant squids***. Then we started getting into boats. I certainly hoped we weren't going to row across. Wasn't there, like, a magic spell that could whisk the boats across the water. At the very least, they could have warned us ahead of time so I could have brought my portable boat-motor. Then it started raining. I contemplated drowning myself right then and there.

"Hi, I'm Arnold. What's your name?" asked a young boy who shared my boat.

I looked him over. He looked to be about 11 years old with a disgusting expression of innocence on his face. I turned my face the other way and ignored him.

It was a miserable journey across the lake. The kiddo who shared my boat kept trying to make conversation, but I knew what he was _really_ after, and I wasn't fooled. I kept my gaze leveled at the castle in the distance and hoped it wouldn't be raining in there.

When we finally got to the other side, I regrouped with my sisters on the land. I was happy to see that they also had managed to remain dignified, even through that humiliating boat ride. We then all started to march to the castle, single-file. I tried my hardest not to get my Esmeralda designer boots wet, but it was hard because it was so muddy, due to all the moisture that was falling from the sky. While we walked there, I took the time to look around, noticing all the fine architectural details of Hogwarts. There was even a covered bridge (kind of like the one in the movie). It was all so wonderfully Baroque.

Once we got to the castle, the Savage pushed the doors open and bellowed "Minerva, we're here!" All of the snot-nosed first years tumbled inside. I managed to skirt around the pile they made on the floor elegantly. A sternly strict-faced witch in olive-green robes met us there, and she told the Savage he could go back to his hut. I watched him go with relief, and reminded myself to take a shower at the first possible opportunity.

The witch in the olive-green robes cleared her throat vigorously as if she was trying to skewer her tonsils with the force of her air. "Greetings and salutations, first year students and Black sisters. They call me Professor McGonagall. I occupy the position of deputy headmistress here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In a few minutes, these doors will open and you will walk in and get sorted. Until that time, please wait in here and don't fidget too much or I will be forced to punish all of you.

Some people laughed at that. I didn't. After growing up with two extremely dangerous sisters, I can tell when someone is being serious or pulling my leg. She left, and then we all waited for her to come back. And waited...and waited...and waited. After forty-five minutes, I was starting to get worried that she had forgotten about us. I mean, I can understand trying to teach a bunch of first years the meaning of patience, but this was ridiculous.

Finally, she came back, and she was dripping wet. "I'm afraid that we have a small problem in the Great Hall where the sorting is supposed to take place, but it's nothing that will stop the feast or the sorting. Please follow me."

* * *

><p>*In case you were wondering, Cissy is short for Narcissa, which is my first name.<p>

**It wasn't the attractive kind of pale, it was the kind of pale that makes me want to upchuck the contents of my stomach, if you know what I mean.

*** The lake, not the castle.


	3. The End's Wave

**Chapter Three: The End's Wave**

The doors to the Great Hall opened ominously, as if they were trying to foreshadow something...like how terrible my upcoming years at Hogwarts would be. A cold tingling shiver of apprehension slipped down my spine, and then I walked in with the other first years and my sisters, Bellatrix and Andromeda.

A sea of faces greeted me—blue from the Ravenclaw table, yellow from the Hufflepuff table, red from the Gryffindor table—dear God, please don't let me be in Gryffindor!—and green from the Slytherin table. I could see Azalea, Zephyr, Amycus, and Alecto reigning at the head of the Slytherin table*, looking as proud as queens. They eyed me coolly, and I looked away, embarrassed that I had been caught looking at them. For some reason, I felt dreadfully unworthy.

However, that wasn't all I saw. Up in the air above everybody's heads were hundreds of umbrellas, and the reason for this was soon apparent—it was raining, inside of Hogwarts.

"The enchanted ceiling must be broken," whispered a first-year girl by my elbow. "I read about it in 'Hogwarts, a History.'"

We walked to the very end of the hall, past all of the tables, and stopped in front of a very old, ancient, and decrepit ragged hat that was sitting on the top of a stool in the middle of the hall. Everybody grew silent. My body tensed with nerves, and it felt like something more acidic than bile was lapping at my insides. I had heard stories about this hat—how it taunted you about a person's fears and desires, and then, when it was done having its fun...it sorted you into a house.

"Black, Andromeda" Professor McGonagall said sternly. I shivered again, because I knew what this meant—my sister was going to be the first person to be sorted. The list must be in alphabetical order. Which meant...I would be third. The acid in my stomach turned into poison, and gasping, I suddenly leaned heavily against Bellatrix. She started and gave me a strange look, as if to say "Why are you so nervous?" The truth was, I had no idea why I was so nervous. I only knew that I was terrified beyond all belief that it would all be a mistake, that the hat would announce to the entire hall that I wasn't magical enough for Hogwarts—I would have to go back home by myself and watch as my sisters grew up, graduated and got their magical degrees, and finally married some rich pureblood fop and be happy forever together—meanwhile, I would always be alone and uneducated.

As these horrific thoughts caroused through my heads, I was so distracted that I almost missed Andromeda getting sorted. In case you were curious, she was sorted into Slytherin. Two minutes later, so was Bellatrix. I felt relieved for them, that they had gotten sorted into the best house at Hogwarts—the house of our ancestors. Then, I suddenly felt a little more optimistic—maybe they would let me come to Hogwarts to visit my sisters occasionally...maybe they would even let me stay at Hogwarts and be a servant!

As these hopeful thoughts galloped through my mind, my name suddenly got called and my heart stopped. Don't worry...not literary.

I very very very reluctantly started walking over to the hat, so reluctantly that I was walking backwards. I would have got away with it, too, because Bellatrix was no longer standing nearby to push me around. Except then, I suddenly saw...my angel! He was sitting with the Death Eaters at the Slytherin table, and he was also looking at me. For some reason, his wondrous gaze filled me with resolve. Whatever the sorting hat decided for me, I knew it would look better in his eyes than running away. I started to walk back to the hat.

Suddenly, I started having flashbacks of my life. I was two, and Bellatrix was flinging rice pudding at me. Then there was a flash of green light, and I was five, and running around in the backyard with Regulus**. Then the scene changed again. I was at the cabin and swimming in Lake Horseshoe, when I suddenly got a cramp and started to drown. Anyway, I had all these movies going through my mind of different moments from my life. It was kinda scary, because I had heard that that only happened when someone was about to die. I opened my eyes and saw that...I was almost at the hat. The suspense was literarily killing me. I fainted.

* * *

><p>I woke up in the infirmary. Opening my eyes, I looked around and noticed how white everything was. White walls, white curtains, white sheets. It was all very blah, and kind of reminded me of Charlie and the Chocolate factory when they were in the TV room.<p>

Suddenly, I heard someone whisper loudly "She's awake! Grab the hat!"

It was a plump grey-haired woman in a nurse outfit that said this, and right afterward, an old man with a long white beard ran out from the shadowy corner of the room that was right next to the bed I was in. He was wearing a tall pointed hat with stars and moons on it, and a dark blue flowing robe that also had different constellations on it, and he was carrying under his arm...the sorting hat! I screamed and tried to escape, but my feet did not seem to be working, and so I got all tangled in the sheets, tripped, and fell on the ground. That kind of hurt, but not as badly as it hurt when the crazy old man jumped on me and forced the hat on my head. I screamed loudly again and tried to take the hat off...but it seemed like it was glued to my head.

And then...I could hear it talking to me. The hat, not the old man. It was saying stuff like "Oh, not a bad mind. And there's plenty of courage here too, along with a very friendly and loyal demeanor." Then, (I could feel it digging through my memories), it pulled up the memory of my stormy-eyed, golden-haired angel, and my feelings for him. "Whoa, you have a megaton of hopeless ambition...Slytherin!" And then, it released its suckers from my head, and I was able to take it off.

Slytherin. I was so relieved that I gave that strange man a hug. He boxed my ears and said "That's for all the trouble you put me through." Then he turned and said "Amycus, could you show Miss Black to the Slytherin common room?"

Amycus slithered out of another dark corner, and then he took my arm and made me go with him. I noticed a shiny badge on his chest with a capital P on it.

"Amycus, are you a prefect?" I asked him curiously.

Without turning to look at me, he told me "Yes." He said this perfectly without any emotion. I started to think that he was a little weird.

I guess the infirmary must have been at the top of a tower or something, because we walked down a lot of stairs to get to the common room. As we walked, we passed lots of strange sights, like walking suits of armor, talking portraits, floating translucent ghosts, and students that were staring and pointing at me. If I'm going to be honest, the ghosts kind of freaked me out. I had never seen a real live ghost before, and they were almost as scary as Sarah Brightman's eyes.

Finally, we entered the dungeons. The walls were made of stone-covered moss, and paintings of people getting tortured and swallowed by snakes were all over the walls. In the distance was always the sound of water dripping. Drip...drip...drip. I could think of several things in the world that were more cheerful than this dungeon, like following the Savage across the lake in the pouring moisture, or wrestling with Professor Dumbledore over that obtuse hat.

Amycus took me along several winding passages. There were many forks in the path, and it twisted around like the beginning tract of a cow's digestive system. Finally, when I feared that I was going to get completely lost and never find my way out again, we reached the entrance to the Slytherin common room.

The entrance was so impressive that I took my breath away. It was a huge blank grey stretch of wall that glittered slightly as if it had diamonds embedded in the surface.

"Password?"

I looked around me for whoever had uttered that word, then I realized with amazement that the wall had said it.

"Make sure you remember this, Narcissa," Amycus told me. Then he recited:

"Wizards whisper of the woman from the stars.

When the cracked flames show the gate of snake.

Worlds weep with the touch of night,

Brought on by the serpents of the sword.

Listen closely, for the shadows of dreams shall be her destiny."

Once finished, a door appeared in the wall, which swiftly opened when Amycus put his hand up to.

"That was a nice little poem you just said. Are the passwords always that long?" I was just trying to make conversation.

Amycus scowled at me. "Our head of house, Professor Slughorn, decides what the passwords will be. They change weekly. Some weeks, they will only be one word, while other weeks, they can be as long as an entire Shakespearean aside. What you just heard me say was a segment from the Legend of the Dragoness Arcana. It is an ancient prophecy from before the time of Salazar Slytherin.

"Oh, what's it about?"

"No one knows for certain, but it is believed to be predicting a time of greatness and glory for Slytherin house...not so much for the rest of the world." He laughed cruelly.

By this time, we had entered the Slytherin common room. I was confronted with the sight of a vast majestic room that was filled with armchairs and tables and what I could probably assume were other Slytherin students. Green lanturns were on all the tables and walls, giving the entire room an eerie green tinge. But that wasn't all.

**SPOILER ALERT! Don't read the next two sentences if you don't want Pottermore spoiled for you!**

The far wall was made of sheer glass. It was see-through, so it gave everyone a perfect view of...the underwater version of the lake. This brought back horrible memories, which made me want to kill myself again.

Now that Amycus had finished escorting me to the common room, he seemed to decide that he really didn't want to spend any more time in my company, so he raced away. I really didn't blame him. I looked around and spotted Bellatrix and Andromeda at a nearby table, so I walked over to them.

"Hey guys. Guess what? I'm in Slytherin too!"

They looked back at me with horrified expressions on their faces. "Narcissa, go away! Stop embarrassing us with your presence!" Then Andromeda looked away and said in a sing-song voice, "We don't know her!"

This made me really sad. Now that we were in school, even my own sisters were embarrassed to be seen with me. Why o why was I so uncool? Sadly, I started walking away with my head hanging down. I wasn't sure what to do, but then I saw that greasy-haired kid from the bus*** sitting alone in an armchair. I realized that sitting by him would be better than sitting alone, so I walked over to him.

"Hi. You're Severus, right?"

He slowly looked up from his book to look at me with light black eyes. "What's it to you?...Oh...you're Narcissa, aren't you." He blushed as he said this last bit. I couldn't imagine why.

I sat in the armchair next to his, and we started talking. But his mind seemed to be pretty boring and unoriginal—remember, I was only talking to him because I had no one else to talk to. Then suddenly... ... ...I saw him—The beautifully gorgeous and handsome angel from the train. I took a chance to observe him without being observed by him as Severus talked obliviously on about himself. How can I describe it? He was so...perfect, in every single way. His blonde hair practically glowed in the light cast by the glowing green globes on the wall, and even from this distance, I could see how fantastically wondrous his turbulent eyes were. I was so stupendously happy that he was also in Slytherin with me, because for my next three years, I would be able to stare at him like this every day! Unless—he were one or two years older than me, in which case he would graduate before me. At this thought, I became really depressed. I didn't know how I would go through life without him****. I suddenly became suicidal again.

Severus stopped talking for a second to take a breath. I took the opportunity to speak.

"Sev?—You don't mind if I call you Sev, do you?"

He blushed again, and shook his head to indicate that he did not mind. Weirdo.

"Well, who's that guy with the blonde hair over there whose handsome chiseled profile is currently being outlined by the green light like an angel's?"

His face fell when I asked this. "Oh him? That's no one important."

"Come on, tell me. It's not like I'm obsessively infatuated with him or anything; I just want to know."

I looked at Severus pleadingly, and before my look, his resolve broke. "All right. That's Lucius Malfoy. He's mean, extremely arrogant, and his father certainly is not one of the richest men in the world."

Lucius Malfoy. The name was beautiful...perfect. So was Narcissa Malfoy. But I had to wake up and stop dreaming.

Suddenly, I heard a cracking noise. At first I thought it was my heart. Then I realized that the noise wasn't coming from me...it was coming from...the glass wall! It was breaking! And outside, trying to get in, was...the Giant Squid!

* * *

><p>*I knew they would be in Slytherin. From the brief meeting I had had with them on the train, I had realized they were too godlike to be in any other house<p>

**We were playing cowboys and Indians.

***If you don't know who that is, go back and read chapter 2 you haddock!

****If you thought I was describing Severus in this paragraph, get the hell out of here!


	4. The Thorn of the Flower

**Chapter Four: The Thorn of the Flower**

I started screaming loudly in sheer terror. I mean, it's not every day that a Giant Squid tries to break in and eat you with its beak. Other people started screaming too, and just about everybody started to evacuate the room, going outside into the dungeon corridor. But not me—I was frozen in terror. I watched as it widened the crack in the glass with its tentacles and as its beak clicked in what I imagined was probably fiendish delight. However, the worst thing about it was its eyes. They were bright yellow and shone like the sun, and the pupils were jagged...and staring right at me. Yup. I was dinner.

"Narcissa! Move!"

Someone was yelling at me, though I wasn't sure who. I didn't dare take my eyes off the creature to turn around and look.

Water suddenly started pouring in from the crack in the wall. Then the sea monster stuck one of its tentacles in, grasping for me. Somebody ran over to me and picked me up, carrying me to safety. I looked up and came face to face with Severus. Even in the midst of my panicking state, I was unable to fully appreciate being rescued by someone who looked like he never washed his hair.

However, we never made it to the door, because with a roar, the stream of water pouring in suddenly became a waterfall. Severus was forced to release me as the current of wetness became too strong, and I was swept away into a corner of the common room. I opened my eyes underwater, and then wished I hadn't. Because, the Giant Squid was now _inside_ the room. It had managed to squeeze its massive body through the crack, and was now swimming right at me. I was basically staring death right in the face.

Severus, however, had not given up. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him slicing through the water toward me, trying to outswim the beast. His cause was a hopeless cause, however. There was no way he would be able to get to me in time. Even if he did, what could he do? Send bubbles shooting out of his wand?

Right when all hope was lost, the beast suddenly reared up in pain. I could see somebody swimming next to the monster that was attacking it with a sword. Severus grabbed me around the waist and hauled me up to the surface of the water. Right then, I became really happy that I had practiced holding my breath underwater for long stretches of time when I was a child, because otherwise, I would have surely have ran out of air while I was describing that epic battle scene to you.

We swam over to the door. Severus opened it and gestured to me to leave with him. I couldn't leave, however, without finding out the identity of my heroic hero that had saved me. So I turned around and watched the man slash at the Great Squid with the sword. I couldn't tell who it was, however, because he was in one of those scuba diving outfits that covered the entire body. He even had a mask and one of those snorkeling pipes. I knew he was a man, though, because his suit was really tight.

When the Giant Squid had died and had finally stopped thrashing, the man swam over to me. He was still holding the sword, and as he got closer, I could see that the hilt was encrusted with green emeralds that gleamed in the light.

"Are you all right, my lady?" he asked me.

I gasped. He had the loveliest voice in the world. It was a trillion times more pleasing to hear than Azalea's voice, and its inflection sounded like something from long ago, as if he had been around for a hundred or so years.

"I...I think so," I replied quaveringly. "Thank you for rescuing me."

And then, he took his mask off. I fainted.

* * *

><p>I awoke in the infirmary the next day. To the left of my bed was a pile of get-well gifts. It was mainly candy from James and his friends. Their sweetness sickened me. I also noticed that Bellatrix and Andromeda had sent me a toilet seat. Typical. To my right was...Severus. He had fallen asleep in a chair next to my bed while holding my hand. I quickly withdrew it from his. Unfortunately, this action of mine woke him up.<p>

"Oh, Narcissa! I'm so glad that you're all right! When that giant squid...oh! It was just horrible!" He was practically blubbering at my side. Really, his selfless worry about my welfare was repugnant.

"Severus, just stop crying before someone comes in and sees us. You're embarrassing me."

However, I wasn't really thinking about him as I said this. Instead, I was thinking about _him. _My rescuer. Because, when he had taken off that scuba mask, I had seen indescribable beauty, as if his face had been grinded away to reveal his shining immortal soul underneath.

"—and you've been here for an entire day and I was worried sick that you would never wake up..."

"What! I've been here for a day?" This was pretty much the only thing Severus had said that I had heard.

"Yes. Oh Cissy, you could have died!"

"Shut up! And don't call me Cissy!"

I leapt out of bed and pushed Severus back when he tried to help me. Then I stormed out of the infirmary before anybody could stuff another hat on my head. I ran out into the hallway, and ran straight into...James Potter!

"Narcissa! It is absolutely splendidiferous to see again...just wizard. Ha ha get it? 'Cuz I'm a wizard?"

I groaned. It was just minutes after I had woken up from that horrific attack from the Giant Squid, and already I was being attacked by horrificker puns.

James continued on, happily oblivious of my opinions about him. "Where are you off to? Oh—I know! You're going to potions class with me!"

I gave him a weird look. "I don't think so."

He took my arm and began steering me down a side corridor. "Yes, I do think so. Because I know for a fact that right now is when fourth-year Gryffindor men have potions class with fifth-year Slytherin women."

I wasn't sure if I believed him, and so I thought about leaving him, but his grip on my arm was really strong. I then considered yelling "RAPE!" But then I thought, "What the heck, I have nowhere better to be right now." So I decided to see what a Hogwarts potion class was like.

The class was down in the dungeons. For the first AND last time only, I was happy that I was with James, because I would have gotten lost down there easily. We walked right past the glittering wall that led to the Slytherin common room*, down two more corridors, and finally, we were there.

The potions room was extremely different from the rest of the dungeon we had walked through to get there. It had pink and yellow walls with picture of sunflowers, gerudo pirates, and pineapples on all of them. There was a fake window on one wall that showed a black sandy beach outside with undulating hula girls strutting around...at least I thought it was fake. Each desk had a piece of candy on it—a Jolly Rancher®. I could tell right away that the Potions Professor was a person who valued fun and happiness along with learning.

I chose a desk near the back because it had a pink Jolly Rancher® on it—my favorite flavor. Then, I moved to the desk that was one row closer to the front, because James had followed me to the back (But I took the candy with me). James followed me again. We repeated this several times, until by the end of our game of musical desks, I was in the very front row. James was forced to sit directly behind me, because the desks to my right and left were already taken.

It was at this moment that the Potions Professor entered the room. He was a very fat man that reminded me of Santa Claus** without the beard. But, he did have a mustache. It was a large, well-groomed handlebar mustache that Hercule Poirot would have been jealous of. He then walked to the middle of the front of the room and put his right hand in the air with the middle three fingers raised and with the pinky and thumb folded into the hand. Immediately, the class started to quiet down, and while they did this, they also put their hands in the air with their fingers arranged in the same symbol as the professor's.

"Why is everybody raising their hands?" I asked the girl to my right. She started to giggle, and then I realized that I had spoken really loudly when the rest of the class had been quiet.

"Miss Qorewyn, could you explain to Miss Black the Rule of the Three Fingers that we have here at Hogwarts?" The professor said this in a deep, rumbly voice.

The girl next to me blushed and stopped giggling. Then she leaned into me and said "At Hogwarts, there's a rule where when a teacher raises his or her hand with the middle three fingers up, the entire class also raises their hands with the middle three fingers up and stops talking. The purpose of having everybody raise their hands is so people who can't see the professor can see other students raising their hands with the secret signal, and thus know that it is time to quiet down." She said this very fast, as if she didn't like telling me this in front of the entire class.

"Thank you for explaining that," he said. "Now, class...It's time for some fun!"

I blinked in astonishment. He had gone from a grave and serious professor to a loud and boisterous one faster than the amount of time it took for James to piss me off.

"As most of you should know by now, my name is Professor Slughorn, and I am the hippiest, rip-roaringest teacher here at Hogwarts. As today is our first day of class for the year, I thought we could have some fun. So, divide into pairs!"

I grabbed Ms. Giggly Qorewyn and said "You're my partner!" because I was so desperate to get away from James. We walked to one of the lab tables in the back of the room behind the desks, and as I looked back, I could see that James was looking put-out at having to be partners with somebody else. Ha.

Professor Slughorn decided to give us some instructions. "What I want each team to do is to create Polyjuice Potion. Now, before y'all start protesting, I do know that it is an extremely difficult potion to make, but...just do your best. The team that has the potion at the end of the class period that most closely resembles Polyjuice Potion will be declared the winners, and will get a prize."

My lab partner—I still didn't know her name—and I cracked open a textbook and scanned through the index, looking for the P's. Then we flipped to the correct page and started gathering ingredients. The first ingredient the potion called for was lacewing flies. The instructions said that the lacewing flies should be stewed for 21 days, but when I pointed that out to my partner, she laughed and said, "That's because this textbook is five years old! We do things differently nowadays." She gathered up the lacewing flies, put them in a bowl, and then carried them to this strange box that was on the back counter. She then opened a door on the box, put the bowl of lacewing flies inside, and then turned a lever on the front of the box.

"What's that?" I asked her.

"This clever invention is called a microwave. Muggles invented it a few years ago, and it works great on all sorts of things, especially speeding up the long and laborious process of potion-brewing."

After about a minute, a timer beeped, and she took the lacewing flies out. We then added Antimony and four unsucculated leeches to them. The fourth ingredient was fluxweed that had been picked at the full moon. Once again I was stumped, and once again, my partner had a solution. She went to a closet at the back, opened it, and took out a metal cylinder. Then, she proceeded to open it with her wand. Inside of it was this grey slimy stuff—fluxweed.

"Why do we keep fluxweed in shiny containers?" I asked my partner.

She laughed. "Shiny containers? This, my friend, is called a can. It is another clever muggle invention that keeps organic objects from spoiling. In this case, it keeps the full-moonlight in the fluxweed, even though it might have been picked a year ago. You know, if wizards started using all the technology that muggles had, we wouldn't have to use magic!"

Although she talked about muggles in an adoring voice an awful lot, her personality was so friendly and magnetic that I couldn't help but like her.

Next, we added Sal Ammoniac (whatever that is), knotgrass, powdered horn of bicorn, Saltpeter, Mercury, and Mars to the cauldron. I wasn't really sure what Mars was, unless we were putting pieces of the planet or of the Roman god of war into our cauldron. The hardest ingredient to obtain was the Boomslang skin. That's because Professor Slughorn kept it in a storage cupboard in his office that students were not allowed into.

"This is why he knew this potion would be so difficult to make," my partner whispered to me. "He keeps one of the key ingredients locked away in his office. I think it's a rule or something. Whenever students are making Polyjuice potion, the teacher has to lock up the Boomslang skin."

"But...won't he be mad when we get the potion completely right because he'll know that we must have broken into the cupboard?"

"Nah...he'll be impressed and will think that it added to the fun."

We decided that I would cause a distraction, and my partner would sneak away and grab the Boomslang skin. So, I set off a firework in class, which flew into James' cauldron and melted it (that was an accident, I swear!) Professor Slughorn fished the firework out of James' cauldron and started laughing so hard I thought he would rupture. By this time, my partner had snuck back into the classroom clutching the Boomslang skin. We added it to the potion. The only ingredient left was a body part of whoever we wanted to transform into, but by this time, time was up.

Professor Slughorn started walking around the room and inspecting everybody's potions. I held my breath anxiously. When he got to our potion, he just couldn't believe his eyes.

"Why, this is absolutely perfect! Ten points to Slytherin each! And I'm going to take away ten points each for breaking into my cupboard."

As my partner had predicted, he thought this last bit was hilarious.

"And finally, here is your prize!"

He handed each of us a tiny golden phial that was filled with a pink liquid.

"This is a love potion. The strongest love potion in the world, in fact! So, knock yourself out and have some fun, girls!" He winked at us cheerfully. Or maybe it was creepily.

Anyway, there are certain traumatic situations that you go through and you can't help but become good friends with someone, and brewing Polyjuice Potion for the first time was one of them. From that moment on, Vera*** Qorewyn and I became very good friends.

*Don't worry...I didn't tell James what it was...I'm not _that_ stupid, even though I'm blonde.

**In case you didn't know who that is, Santa Claus is the icon of an American holiday called Christmas.

***I know this because I later asked her what her name was.


	5. Aurora from the Glacier

**Chapter Five: Aurora of the Glacier**

Because he was the head of Slytherin house, I asked Professor Slughorn if he had my class schedule. Sure enough, he did. My next class was History of Magic class, taught by Professor Bins. Because Vera is in the same house and year as me, we had all the same classes, so she walked with me. The classroom was on the fifth floor, so by the time I got there, I was wheezing and panting. Much to my surprise and dismay, Professor Bins was...a ghost. But, I hid my feelings behind a veil of face, and I walked over to him and introduced myself.

"Professor, I'm Narcissa Black, and I'm new here at Hogwarts."

"Ah... ... ... ...yes... ... ... ...thou art Miss Black, the new student. This is... ...History of Magic class, whither thou shalt learn the noble history of thee earth! Here is... ... ... ...the class reading list."

He tried to hand me the reading list, but his hands must have been really slippery or something, because that didn't work too well. So, I just picked up the list myself from his desk. I glanced at it and read: Bagshot, Brontë, Cummings, Huxley, Meyer, Poe, Scamander, Twain. I had already read all of them, so I handed the list back to Professor Bins (it slipped right through his body...he should really see somebody about that) and told him so.

He gazed at me through silvery eyes. "Very well, Miss Black. I can see that thou bestride the banner of responsible and will not cause any hurly-burly's in my class... ... ... ...Thou may take thy seat now."

I went and sat by my best friend Vera in the back. This way we could pass notes about things like how boring the class was and who was the hottest boy in class, without being caught. We needn't have worried, though. If Professor Bins couldn't even realize that he was dead, he certainly wasn't going to see what we were doing.

Anyway, class was really boring, which was kind of to be expected, considering that it was a history class. Though I did start to get a little worried about my complexion. I mean, if history could kill Professor Bins, who knew what it could do to me. I thought back to the Potions class I had come from, and how much fun that had been. It amazed me that two classes could be so different. I decided right then and there that Potions was my favorite class.

Once History of Magic class was finally over for the day, I had an hour break before my next class, Transfiguration, which was fifth-year Slytherins with sixth-year Hufflepuffs and Second-year Gryffindors. So, Vera and I headed down to the Great Hall for lunch. We sat at the Slytherin table, of course, and started talking about how the day had gone while we munched on leek and onion flans, hazelnut-studded cheese, and the finest raspberry cordial that Hogwarts had to offer. About halfway through our break, I noticed a strange girl staring at me from the Hufflepuff table. She had mousey brown hair and dull watery blue eyes. She was watching me very intently, and it was sort of creeping me out, so I just turned my back on her and tried to ignore her.

Once our break was over, Vera and I started on the long and laborious journey to the Transfiguration classroom. Unfortunately, we got lost several times because Hogwarts is such a big castle. For instance, at one point, we came to a locked door. This is what happened:

"I'm fairly certain that this is the way to the Transfiguration classroom, Cissa." Vera looked at me with her eyes wide.

"Are you sure, Vera? Why would it be through a locked door?"

"Oh, I don't know. Hogwarts is always changing. But don't worry. I know a spell! _Alohamora!"_ And with that, I heard a click as the door opened.

"Alohamora?"

"Yeah," Vera exclaimed proudly. "It's a spell for unlocking doors and secret diaries and such. Are you telling me you don't know that spell? At Hogwarts, we learned it in year one!"

I looked at her in puzzled confusion. "What's the point of locking doors at Hogwarts if everybody knows the spell for unlocking doors?"

"I don't know. Teachers are dumb, I guess. Let's go!"

We walked through the door and ran into...a room full of Cornish pixies! They flew at us while laughing hideously and started pulling our hairs. Vera and I screamed and ran out of the room, shutting the door behind us.

"What were they thinking, locking those things up in a room like that?" I cried.

"They were guarding something! Weren't you paying attention? I saw the outline of an invisible and secret door in the very back of the room that probably can only be opened by very deep, dark, and black magic! Oh my gosh...we are so late to class! McGonagall is going to kill us! She's the head of Gryffindor house, and so she's pretty much the spawn of Satan! Let's hurry!"

* * *

><p>We arrived at the transfiguration classroom seven minutes later very out of breath and very short-tempered. Although Vera had claimed that she remembered the correct way to class after the mishap with the locked door, we still managed to run down the wrong corridor twice before finding the right classroom. I saw that the teacher, Professor McGonagall, was the same Professor McGonagall that had led the sorting. That alone was a strong enough reason to dislike her, and upon setting my eyes on her, my liver instantly began to produce hatred-filled insulin.<p>

When we entered the classroom, she looked at us sternly over her dorky glasses, and said "Miss Black, I can understand you being late because you are new at this school. As for Miss Qorewyn, however, there are no excuses I can think of that will ever get you out of trouble for being late, and so you will have to go sit in the broom closet for the entire class period and reflect on your bad behavior."

Vera burst into tears and ran morosely into the broom closet. All of the Slytherins present watched this exchange with silent horror, while the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs cheered Professor McGonagall on. I watched Vera leave sadly, then I was forced to take the only empty seat in the room.

"Indeed, it is a good thing our dear friend Miss Qorewyn was forced to leave us anyway," Professor McGonagall said smugly, "Because otherwise, we wouldn't have enough chairs, and someone—" She looked meaningfully at me—"would have to sit on the ground."

I rolled my eyes and looked away from her. Then I noticed that the person that I just happened to be sitting by was the watery-eyed, mousy haired Hufflepuff that had been staring at me during lunch. And...she was still staring at me, with the same idiotic look of adoration that I had come to associate with James or Severus. Great...just great.

I decided that two could play at that game, and so just stared right back. She quickly averted her eyes and started blushing fiercer than a bull moose during mating season. Then, flicking her eyes back at me, she whispered, "I'm Penelope. You're the new girl, right? Narcissa Black?"

I nodded, warily. What did she want? What was she getting at?

"Class!" Professor McGonagall bellowed, "I'm afraid we will be doing something different today. As you all know, as part of Hogwarts' program Good Will to Other Schools, we will be having some of the students from Blarneyland over to visit over fall break—"

I gasped. Nobody had ever told me about this.

"—and one of the activities we have planned during their stay is a harvesting festival, which will include bobbing for apples, a haunted house, and...the Harvest Ball!"

Several girls in the room cheered. Not me. Unlike them, I had too much experience with Irish guys to get too excited for the Harvest Ball.

But, Professor McGonagall was not done talking yet. "Just so none of the students here embarrass me during the ball, I have decided to incorporate dancing lessons into every single one of our class periods together up until the fall break."

I snorted, thinking she was making a sad and failing attempt at being humorous. Geez, was I ever wrong.

"Everybody, pick a partner! I would prefer to have guys be with girls, but as the women outnumber the men, some girls will have to be with girls. So...go at it!"

All the girls rushed to find a male partner and not have to dance with a girl. I have to admit...I was one of those girls. I have very vivid memories of recess in elementary school when captains would pick teams for sports—and I would always be the last one to get picked. That was a horrible time in my life, and I was desperate not to repeat it at Hogwarts. However, whenever I got close to a guy in order to ask him to dance, Penelope would bump into him and disrupt our eye contact. She did this several times, until all the guys had partners, and I was still partnerless. Man, this made me feel like crying tears of blood to express how my heart was breaking. Instead, I realized that I had to make the most of the situation, and so I walked over to the small group of girls that were left to find a partner.

Penelope then ran over to me and yelled "Pick me! I'll be your dance partner!"

I didn't really want to be with her, because she had wrecked my chances of getting a male dance partner and because her hair was so mousy, but just to be nice, I gave in.

All the dance couples then lined up in a line, and Professor McGonagall said "Girl partners, figure out which of you will be the man for the dances."

Penelope looked at me.

I shook my head. "Oh, no, I don't think—"

"But you're the taller one of us, so you should be the man."

I would have smacked her upside the head or argued with her for a longer time or something, but people were starting to stare at us, so I agreed that I would be the man today. Silently, I made a mental note to tie Penelope to a chair right before the next class so I could get a male partner and be a woman.

Professor McGonagall first showed us how to do a foxtrot. She started by telling us where to put our hands, and very sternly told the boys that their right hand goes on the back of the girl's shoulder blade, not on their butt. Penelope didn't have to worry about that with me. Once she had finished explaining the dance to us, she let us practice. The guy is supposed to lead, but Penelope led us all over the classroom. It wasn't too bad, as the foxtrot is rather easy once you've got the steps figured out.

After we had practiced that for a little while, Professor McGonagall decided it was time to show us how to do a waltz. In my opinion, the waltz is even easier than the foxtrot—you and your partner just move in a box-formation over and over again, and occasionally, the man can twirl the woman. However, because the steps were easier, this meant that the mind was free to focus on other things. Apparently, in Penelope's case, this better made it easier for her to stare at me, like a bride gazing at her new husband during the first dance at the wedding reception. This really creeped me out, and so I started to crane my neck around, looking for the clock to see how much longer we had. There was no clock in view*, and while I was doing this, Penelope took the opportunity to snuggle up to me. Ahhhh! Talk about being scarred for life.

Luckily, right around the time that she started doing this, Professor McGonagall realized that we were out of time for the class and she dismissed us. We didn't even have any time to work on any transfiguration work, because the dancing had taken the entire hour. I instantly broke away from Penelope and rushed to the broom closet to retrieve Vera.

As we walked back to the Slytherin common room, I told Vera all about Penelope and the dancing lessons. She thought it was hilarious.

"Lucky you, looks like somebody likes you. Too bad it's a _she_! Heeheehee."

I rolled my eyes and politely asked her to shut up.

"All right. You had just better hope that Severus never hears about this, or there'll be a full blown war going on!"

I laughed along with her just to appease her, but inside, I was smarting. Why couldn't anybody _cool_ and good-looking ever like me? Why was it always the freaks of the school? What was wrong with me?

*I would later learn that the board of governors had not yet approved the use of clocks in Hogwarts


	6. Company

**Warning! There is some very scary stuff in this chapter and some harsh language. Read at your own risk!**

**Chapter Six: Company**

Vera and I trekked back to the Slytherin common room together. During my stay in the infirmary, all the water had been drained out of it; all the fish, octopi, and mermaids that had collected on the floor had been donated to a local food shelf; and all furniture and items that had been damaged by the water/squid had been restored to their normal green condition. However, although they had bought new glass for the giant window, it still hadn't arrived. So, as a not-permanent fix, they had taped the crack up with duct tape. Upon entering, I immediately flopped down on an armchair and got to work writing a paper that Professor Bins had assigned to us. It was supposed to be about the history of the renowned sorceress Medea. Which mine was, except instead of being formatted in the boring prose of introduction-body-conclusion, I wrote it as an epic poem.

I had just written the following verse:

"Oh Jason, I cuss,

Why did you betray me?

For you I killed Absyrtus

And yet you act so silly.

I even murdered our children,

But you still prefer Glauce the bimbo."

when I heard a door silently open, and the sound of footsteps pitter-pattering into the common room. It was getting rather late at night, because I had been working on my poem for a long time (I was putting a lot of work into it so I would impress Professor Bins and get an A), and everybody by that time had left the common room and gone to bed. I was the last person up...until...these people came in. So, I looked up to see who they were, and I saw Azalea, Zephyr, Amycus, Alecto, and some other people I didn't recognize. They didn't see me because I was hidden by the tall back of the armchair.

Anyway, they gathered over by the fireplace and started talking*. I watched them, fascinated. The light from the dying fire glistened on their perfect skin, making them flicker before my eyes like supernatural beings. They were like a council of solitary Norwegian mountain trolls, reveling in their gold and jewels. My ears strained to catch what they were saying. I couldn't hear every word, but what I did hear were phrases such as "Might be out of Azkaban by next year" and "He who must not be named". I gasped when I heard that last part. They were talking about my cousin Sirius! Then I crawled closer to hear what they were saying.

"Lucius doesn't think we should let him join the Death Eaters." It was Azalea who said this, enthralling me with her voice and with the mention of my beloved's name.

"Who fucking cares what Lucius thinks? He's not the leader of this group, I am!"

This was said by a bald man with snake-slit eyes and no nose. I couldn't recall ever seeing him at Hogwarts before. He had had his arm around Azalea's waist, until she had spoken and made him angry.

Then Amycus spoke, his eyes fixed seriously on the man's funny face. "Voldemort, I know you are confident of You-Know-Who's ability—"

"Call him Sirius Black, his name! How many times do I have to tell you shitheads? Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself!" Voldemort practically snarled as he said this.

"—Alright, of...of Sirius Black's abilities, but still, we have to remember that he was sorted into Gryffindor. That means that he is certainly not to be trusted."

The man called Voldemort suddenly became very calm. That kind of creeped me out, especially when juxtaposed with his previous emotion of rage. He had switched his emotions like somebody taking one mask off and putting another on. "Amycus Carrow, you are one of my most boringly devious followers at the moment. And so, you should know that when I make a decision, I usually have a very good reason behind it. Now, I have very good reason to suspect that although the sorting hat put Sirius Black in...Gryffindor, he still has...potential."

There were several outbursts at this, mainly by the guys in the group.

"What potential is he going to have to you in Azkaban prison?" a swarthy-skinned guy asked incredulously.

"My dear Mister Goyle, he already was of use to me just for going there!"

The entire group suddenly quieted down when they heard this faster than the Hogwarts' Express on steroids. I was really confused. Was my cousin in prison at the age of 14? And if he was, what did he do that was bad enough to land him there, besides getting sorted into Gryffindor.

As if he were aware of the creepily spooky atmosphere he was creating, Voldemort dropped his voice down to a whisper. I strained my ears to hear.

"I killed Armando Dippet!"

Everybody there gasped. I didn't because I had no idea who Armando Dippet was. So, I decided to listen some more and try to figure out what was going on. Although, I did feel a little guilty for listening in to their conversation, because you know what they say about eavesdroppers.

"My lord," Azalea laced her fingers through Voldemort's and laid a kiss on the top of his hand, "What do you mean that you killed Dippet? Everyone knows that Sirius killed him. The muggles even caught it on video!"

Voldemort smirked, clearly enjoying the attention she was bestowing on him. "I meant just what I said. I thought that Dippet was getting too powerful and so I decided to kill him. As you all know, he used to be headmaster of this school, before that crackpot Dumbledore was appointed headmaster, of course. Anyway, I heard that he had been experimenting with the dark arts in his nursing home, and I didn't want to have anyone around that was more powerful than me at the dark arts. So, I paid him a little visit one night, and...killed him."

From what I could see, everybody was staring at him with their mouths open.

He continued on, smoothly. "It was easy, really. I just walked right in and went up to his room. I had been planning to quickly kill him and then disapparate without a trace, but then, I saw young Sirius Black there..."

My brow furrowed with thought. Why on earth would my cousin be at a nursing home? Who would he be visiting there?

"...and so, I got an idea. I decided to frame Sirius with the murder of Armando Dippet. It was all too easy, really." And then he started rocking with laughter. It was the kind of evil laugh that you only hear in movies, and it chilled me to the core. I started to get scared. Here I was listening to some evil mob leader talk about murder as if it were an everyday occurrence. I began to wish that I had done what was expected and just written a boring introduction-body-conclusion paper for history class. At least then, I would be safe in bed right now.

After the strains of his laughter died away, there was silence in the common room for a few moments. Then, one of the men asked "And why do you want him to join the ranks of the Death Eaters, most feared club at Hogwarts? We've never had anybody join that wasn't in Slytherin."

"I want someone who is familiar with the going-ons of Azkaban. Besides, although he is in Gryffindor, he is a member of the moste noble house of Black. Their blood is as pure as anybody's." Then he turned and looked at Azalea. "My dearest, why doesn't Lucius want Sirius to join?"

She started, as though surprised to be addressed by him. "Oh, I don't know. Probably for similar reasons as everybody else here."

"Hmm..." He stared at her intensely for a moment. She blushed and looked away.

"Speaking of Lucius, where is he tonight?" asked Zephyr.

Everybody looked at Azalea. She blushed again and said "He had to fly to London for an awards ceremony."

"Again? What is this one for?" someone asked.

"For killing that giant squid and saving the life of...some girl."

"Some girl? Who?" Voldemort snapped.

"I...I'm not sure. I wasn't there when it happened."

I held my breath in suspense. This was getting a little too scary for me.

"Anyway," Azalea quickly continued, "He's also getting a giant trophy erected in the trophy room. It has his name on it!" Well, she wasn't trying to change the subject at all.

My butt was starting to fall asleep, so I carefully adjusted my weight around, and...one of the springs in the cushion of the armchair I was on made a creaking noise! Everybody stopped talking and started looking around for the perpetrator of that offensive sound. Amycus and Alecto then got up and started slowly walking around the room. I watched in terror as Alecto got closer and closer to the place where I was hiding. Her nose was crinkled, as if she were sniffing the air like a wolf, trying to smell my fear. All of a sudden, her eyes alighted on my armchair, and she smiled slightly as if she knew someone was there. She creeped closer, and then—

"Alecto, never mind. Let's leave!"

One of the Death Eaters said this. They were all packing up their belongings as if they had decided to go. I watched as Alecto look one last look at the armchair where I was hiding, and then turned and walked back to the group. Some people then trotted up to the dormitories to go to bed, and other people, like Voldemort, turned and left through the common room door.

After the common room was empty and silent, I sat in that chair for ten more minutes, trying to make my breath was as quiet as possible. After a while, I decided that everybody really had left, so I got up and silently paced over to the fifth-year girls' dormitory. Luckily, nobody in the Death Eater's club slept in this dormitory, or they might have seen me come in after them. I then went to bed.

* * *

><p>The next morning, I was too miserable and scared to say anything to Vera right away. Thoughts of the previous night caroused through my head. Sirius, my cousin, was in Azkaban prison. And, all because one of Azalea's and Zephyr's friends had killed somebody—the previous headmaster of Hogwarts—and then framed him. What kind of unhinged person would set out to destroy some poor old man? While I had thought that the Death Eaters was some exclusive club where everybody just had to look good and act like a prep, I now knew it was more than that—murder was discussed at meetings as if it were an everyday occurrence!<p>

Shivering, I sat in an armchair in the common room, clutching a mug of hot tea in my hands and wondering what to do. One thought was that I could turn the gang in to the headmaster, Professor Dumbledore**. However, I knew that if I did this, I would get some of my fellow classmates, such as Azalea and Zephyr, into trouble. I didn't care about the twins—Amycus and Alecto—they really creeped me out. But Zephyr, although also creepy, was creepy in a nice way. And Azalea simply _fascinated_ me. I mean, the way she kissed that bald dude's hand—it was a motion so submissively erotic, and yet so...beautifully _creepy_, that I found myself thinking of her all morning.

And then there was...Lucius Malfoy. He was the person that was always at least at the fringe of my thoughts—of my very essence. On one hand, I was happy that he had not gone to the midnight meeting last night. It was easier for me to think of him as being innocent of the entire affair this way. On the other hand, I sorely missed him and wished he had been there last night just so I could feast my eyes on his manly beauty.

The wall opened and Bellatrix and Andromeda walked into the common room. I called them over to me. They looked like they wanted to run away when they saw it was me saying their names, but then they realized that the common room was practically deserted, and so nobody would see them uncoolly talking to me.

"What do you want Narcissa?" Bellatrix asked warily.

"Did you guys know that..._You know who_ is in Azkaban prison?"

"Of course we knew that," Andromeda scoffed, "Have you seen him at Hogwarts yet? Nooo, so where else would he be but in jail?"

"Well," I replied weakly, "Do you really believe he killed that guy?"

Bellatrix laughed. "Sure he killed him. He was in Gryffindor, wasn't he?"

I stared at them unbelievably. They looked at each other, and Bellatrix said "Well, if you have nothing better to do but to quiz us about family members, we're leaving for somewhere else."

"For someone else's company—better than yours," Andromeda tacked on to the end of her statement."

* * *

><p>*To my ears, it sounded like scheming.<p>

**As much as the man had tried to molest me on my first day at Hogwarts, he was still the leader of the school and so would know better than anyone what to do in this situation.


	7. Your Eyes See but my Shadow

**Chapter Seven: Your Eyes See but my Shadow**

After my sisters left, I cried for a little bit about how nobody liked me. Then, I noticed the British wizarding newspaper, _The Daily Prophet_, lying open on an end table near me. Because I had nothing better to do at the moment (my first class of the day wasn't for another hour or so), I grabbed it and started looking through it. And there, on the front page, was a headline that screamed _**Wizard Breaks into Irish Vault; Steals Nothing!**_

I started reading the article:

_At approximately 1:42 a.m. this morning, leprechauns working at Smithershebeene, the wizarding bank in Ireland, discovered that someone had broken into vault 666—_

I gasped, because vault 666 was _my_ vault! Then I eagerly devoured more of the paper with my eyes.

_Upon inspection of the vault, they noticed that nothing had been taken. However, when leaving the vault, the workers noticed a masked somebody trying to sneak out. The pursuit was unsuccessful, as the intruder took out his broomstick and flew away before he could be apprehended. The Irish Ministry of Magic wants everyone to be on the lookout for this mysterious criminal because he is highly dangerous, and they want you to know that he has platinum-blond hair, dresses like a fashion-god, and drives a nimbus two-thousand-and-one._

Once I finished reading the article, I stared at it in shock. Someone had broken into my vault. My vault! I briefly contemplated flying to Ireland to enquire more about the matter, than I quickly decided against it. I didn't have anything of great value in the vault—just some shamrocks. My distrust of banks was so great that I had brought all of my gold with me to Hogwarts, where I kept it under my mattress, kind of like the Princess and the Pea. That's because, unlike the English bank Gringotts, where they keep all your gold locked up in your vault, at Smithershebeene, they like to borrow your money out and stuff. This never made any sense to me—I mean, it's my money, right? So until I got an account at Gringotts, my money was going to stay under my mattress.

Still, I was relieved that nothing had been taken. But still, why would someone break into my vault if he or she was not planning to take anything? Puzzled, I just couldn't figure this mystery out.

"Narcissa! Are you ready for the first day of Defense against the Dark Arts class?" Vera came down the stairs from our dormitory sleepily. She stopped in the middle, and yawned while she put her arms above her head like you see them do in those campy movies.

"Vera! Come over her and look at this!"

She came over to my side obediently and read the article.

"Vera, that's my vault! My vault!"

"Your vault. I just...can't believe it. Why would someone steal anything from you? I mean, what's so valuable that someone would risk breaking into Smithershebeene to get it?"

"I don't know," I sobbed. Her surprise was not surprising. The Irish wizarding bank was the most heavily guarded in the world because it controlled the economy of the entire wizarding world! Breaking into it was...like, serious business."

By the time we were done crying about it, it was time for Defense against the Dark Arts. The classroom for this class was in a tower, so Vera and I had to climb hundreds of flights of stairs just to get there. What made it even worse was that many of the staircases moved! So, we often had to jump from stair to platform like Super Mario. Once we got up to the top of the stairs, we had to climb a ladder. Once we got to the top of the ladder, we had to scale the sheer side of a wall with only a rope. It sure was hard at first, but after a while, I got the hang of slowly climbing up it. The key was rhythm.

After all of that, we were finally at the top of the tower. There was a single door, so we decided that the classroom was through that door. We went in, and we were confronted with what looked like a dungeon. Like, seriously. The walls were made of oppressive grey stone. Some of them were even leaking moisture, as if they were crying tears of water at having to be a part of this depressing room. On the sides of the room were what looked like weapons of mass torture and despair. All the sunlight in the room had already been killed before we had arrived, and the only source of light came from these grubby tallow-yellow candles that lined the walls and were on the tables. Vera and I were the first people to arrive, so we gathered our courage, picked a table, and sat down to wait. I stared blankly at a pair of manacles that were hanging down from the ceiling next to my head, and prayed dearly that nothing in this room would be used on students.

After a while, the other students started to trickle in. I noted with relief that they were all Slytherins, and there was nobody from a different house there. They also seemed to be from many different years. Severus showed up about five minutes after we did, and I graciously allowed him to sit at the same table as Vera and I. Bellatrix and Andromeda also appeared, and they took one look at me and went to the other side of the classroom with some of their friends. Last to appear was Azalea, Zephyr, Amycus, Alecto, and... ... ... ...Lucius! My stomach leapt up into my throat as soon as I saw him. But, I had to admit, he did look kind of bad. Purple bags surrounded his eyes, as if he hadn't slept in a long time, and his usually sleek blond hair was snarly and matted, as though he hadn't been taken care of it. But even with these shortcomings, he still was, to put it bluntly, beautiful. I was delighted with the chance to stare at him again after not seeing him for a day or two. Vera laughed when she saw where I was looking so intently, as I had already told her all about it. Severus, when he kept hearing my sighs of ecstasy, looked around for a knife to cut himself.

That was when the teacher entered. He looked...weird. I don't know any other way to describe it. He was a very tall, thin, and pale man, with no hair on the top of his head. His face was also covered in messy stitches. It was as if he didn't have any skin on his face, so he had to skin the skin off of other people and clumsily sew it onto his face with a knitting needle the size of a toothbrush. As soon as he got in the room, everybody immediately stopped talking, and I even stopped sighing. He then looked around at us silently for a moment, without talking, and I noticed how odd his eyes were. The skin around them was kind of wrinkled and pushed up in places, as if there was something about them that he wanted to hide by sewing somebody else's skin around them.

Then, he spoke for the first time. "Welcome to my class, Defense against the Dark Arts. You may call me Professor. Just Professor. " His voice sounded oddly familiar to me, but I couldn't place where I had heard it before. "Here you will learn about the subtle and often unappreciated art of dark magic. It is necessary to know a lot about it in order to defend yourself against it. He walked to the center of the classroom and paused, his eyes moving lazily over everyone. They stopped on me for a second, and I swear he smiled when he saw me. I shivered.

"Today's lesson will be relatively easy, and they will get progressively harder as the year goes on." He glided over to his desk, turned his computer on, and opened up a PowerPoint presentation. The first slide showed a picture of a bronze-colored cup with a badger engraved on the front. "Who can tell me what this is?"

One girl in the front row raised her hand. "Please, Professor, it is Helga Hufflepuff's cup!"

"Wrong!" Although he said this sharply, he didn't seem angry at all. In fact, he rather seemed to be enjoying himself. "This, my dears, is a horcrux!"

He said this as though he had been expecting half the class to fall on the floor and start having convulsions at the sound of the word "horcrux." We must have disappointed him though, because nobody did. The entire class looked stupefied, as if they had never heard the word "horcrux" before. I certainly hadn't.

His face suddenly turned annoyed. The switch was such a sudden and unnatural one that I suspected him of not experiencing emotions the same way everybody else does. "Miss Townsend!" he snapped, angrily this time. "Can you tell me what a horcrux is?"

Azalea looked up at him as though startled to be called on. I half expected Zephyr, sitting next to her, to smirk and nudge her or something (It seemed fitting with what I knew of his nature), but he sat deathly-still, his face ashen with fear. I noted with interest that all four of them—Azalea, Zephyr, Amycus, and Alecto—appeared to be frightened of the professor. Lucius—dear Lucius!—might have been also, but he seemed to be too tired to display any emotion on his face other than one of being tired.

"I...I'm not sure," she replied, her voice wavering as if she were singing and trying to attempt vibrato.

"You're not sure," he repeated mockingly. He stalked over to Azalea and stood before her, his puggly eyes staring down at her. She started breathing really hard, as though she was either really scared or really aroused. "You know," he whispered, "I would have expected more from you."

She kept her eyes firmly pointed at the ground, avoiding his eye contact. Everybody in the class was staring at the two of them, probably wondering what on earth was going on. I know I was.

"Very well, class." The professor suddenly whipped around and went back to his desk. On his face was a large grin. It was without a doubt one of the scariest things I have ever seen in my life. "The lecture portion of class is over. Now, we will start on a lab. Everybody, come with me to the back room."

Everybody got up and followed him, just not very closely. He led the class to a large room behind the classroom. It was empty, except for a large wardrobe in the center nearly identical to the one in the 1997 movie Snow White: A Tale of Terror. It even had those clasping hands at the front. The class started buzzing. What was going to happen.

"Miss Townsend," Professor called, "Could you please come stand over here in front of this wardrobe?"

Azalea looked like she was going to be sick, yet she shakingly walked over and stood in front of the wardrobe.

"Thank you. Now, on the count of three, I am going to open the wardrobe with my wand. One..."

The entire class stepped away from Azalea and the wardrobe.

"Two..."

I held my breath with anticipation. Was Professor going to sacrifice her to the heathen wardrobe god?

"Three."

With a click, the door swung open. Nothing happened at first, but then, suddenly, a golden-haired man with light blue eyes stepped out. He slowly grinned at Azalea "I have killed him, but don't feel bad. It was for the greater good. You can come with me now." The man licked his lips, and Azalea suddenly crumpled to the ground. Just as she hit the ground, the man vanished, and the wardrobe doors closed. Zephyr tensed his body, as if he wanted to run to his friend's aid, but a motion from Professor stopped him.

The professor—why did he seem so familiar to me?—casually walked over and stood over Azalea. With one flick of his wand, a fountain of water joyously sprung into her face. She spluttered and sat up blearily. The professor beckoned to Zephyr. "You may bring your friend to the hospital wing." Azalea put her arm over Zephyr's shoulder, and the two walked over to the door and left the room. I got a glimpse of Azalea's face as she left, and it was all scrunched up as if she were trying hard not to burst into tears.

"Class," the professor said with his back to us, "That is all for today. You are dismissed."

Everybody looked at each other, all confused. That had to have been the shortest lesson I had ever had, Hogwarts or elsewhere. But I wasn't going to complain. Along with the rest of the class, I walked to the exit silently, wondering what was the meaning behind what I had just experienced.

When I got to the room with the wall that we had to scale down, my bag suddenly burst open. Books, notebooks, and bottles of ink went everywhere. Vera and I scrambled to pick them up. Because of this, we became last in line to go down the wall. After Vera had safely made the descent, I grabbed the rope and started down. Suddenly, when I was half-way to the bottom, I heard a strange noise. Looking up, I saw that...the rope was fraying and breaking! Before my very eyes, I watched as strands of rope broke apart until only the middle section was left intact. And then... ... ... ... ... ...even that broke! Screaming, I began to fall to the ground.

**To be continued...**


	8. Some Boring Dialogue

**Chapter Eight: Some Boring Dialogue**

Screaming, I plummeted down to the ground faster than the speed of light. I could see Vera also screaming with her mouth open as she watched me with horror and terror mating in her eyes like a yin-yang. And then, right before I hit the bottom and had my body parts scattered all over Hogwarts, somebody caught me! Dazed, I looked up, and came face to face with my gorgeous hero—Lucius Malfoy. I closed my eyes and prepared to faint, but I didn't, so instead, I reopened my eyes and shyly smiled at him in thanks.

He then set me gently on the ground and started walking away. I gawked after him for a moment, then followed him.

"Hey! Wait!"

He stopped and gave me a very annoyed look.

"I don't mean to be annoying or anything, but why did you save me?"

He smirked. "Because otherwise, Filch would have had a very big mess to clean up."

I stared at him poutingly. He turned around and continued on his quest to walk away. I ran after him again. "That's twice that you saved me! Will you get another award for this one?"

He stopped so suddenly I almost ran into the back of him. "How did you hear about that?"

"Oh, I don't know," I faltered. Something told me that I shouldn't tell him about overhearing his friends talk in the Slytherin common room two chapters ago.

He looked right into my eyes, a frown creasing the brow on his forehead. Then, suddenly, his face loosened slightly, and he said "What did you think of that Defense against the Dark Arts class?"

I was taken aback by his sudden mood swing. "It was...interesting, I guess."

He laughed. "Haha...interesting. That's a great word to describe it."

"Yeah, though I'm still confused as to what a horcrux is." His face immediately darkened again. I pressed on cautiously, trying to make sense of the entire matter. "I couldn't figure out why the professor was so angry when Azalea Townsend didn't know what one was. It was kind of scary."

"Yeah," Lucius agreed, "I know him from before, and he can be a very scary man when he wants to be."

I shivered, thinking of those large stitches all over that messily put-together face. "Who was that man that came out of the wardrobe, and why did she faint when he spoke?"

"That was a creature called a boggart. It takes on the form of whatever it is a person fears the most."

"Then...Azalea fears blond men?"

He laughed. "She's not so scared of me."

"Yeah," I laughed with him, "I bet you've never made her faint."

His face darkened again like cumulonimbus cloud, then, changing the subject, he said "Why did you come to Hogwarts?"

I was surprised by the hostile undertones in his voice. "Well, I certainly couldn't stay in Ireland any longer. Both of my parents had just died, so my sisters and I moved to England in order to be closer to our other family."

"Ah yes, your family," he mused. "The famous Sirius Black."

I winced at the sound of his name. "And Regulus!" I replied weakly.

He seemed to ignore this. "Tell me," he asked, "Did you know that Sirius is in Azkaban."

"Well, I might have heard about it...from somewhere."

"Do you know why he's there?"

"Umm...no...no, I don't."

Instead of choosing to answer this as to why Sirius was in prison, he instead decided to say "The Black family seems to be bad news."

I glared at him, outraged. "What makes you say that?"

"Well, first there's Sirius. He gets sorted into Gryffindor, and then...you know. And now, there's you. I've had to save you from dying twice now in only a few days, and I have a feeling you are soon going to make my life a whole lot worse."

I was shocked. "What a thing to say to someone." And then, because I was so mad, I turned and left him there.

* * *

><p>I decided to take a walk by the lake in order to get my thoughts in order. Lucius Malfoy was so confusing. One moment he saves me, the next, he completely insults me. Even so, I still had very strong and conflicting feelings about him that were more storm-like than his glamorous eyes. Speaking of storms, the wind was starting to pick up, as if there was about to be one. However, I stayed outside by the lake, enjoying the feel of the wind on my skin. Suddenly, I saw a person from the far side of the lake running toward me. It looked like he was coming from the forbidden forest! I ducked behind a tree, and then watched to see who it was. Then, I gasped. It was my cousin...Regulus!<p>

"Reggie!" I yelled, coming out of my hiding place and running toward him, "What are you doing out here?"

"Narcissa, run away!" he yelled when he saw me.

I didn't know why, but I started running as he asked. Finally, the two of us made it back to the castle. "What was that about?" I asked him.

"Mountain troll!" he wheezed.

"What?" I asked in shock and horror.

Once he got his breath back, he started to explain. "But you have to promise you won't tell anyone!"

"All right I promise!" I whined.

"Okay. Well, I was in Care of Magical Creatures class yesterday. Hagrid decided to show us around the forbidden forest. The tour was kind of boring—just some werewolves and unicorns—so Severus and I decided to sneak away and do some exploring by ourselves."

I groaned. Why does Severus seem to always pop up in my life?

"So," he continued, "we were just exploring the base of that mountain over there by the lake—" he pointed in the general direction of the lake, but I already knew what mountain he was referring to—"when suddenly, a rock started moving! Only, it wasn't a rock, it was a mountain troll! Luckily, it hadn't seen us—we were still too far away. But, we watched as it rolled a giant boulder to the side to reveal a big wooden door, where it went inside."

I already knew where this was going, but still, I could always hope. "Please tell me you both then went back to Hogwarts safely where you had an uneventful evening doing homework or watching girls get dressed or whatever it is teenage boys do in their spare time."

He gave me a weird look. "When did you get so facetious. That is so _not_ what we did. We both knew that mountain trolls keep lots of treasure in their mountains, so last night, we went back to the mountain to see if we could get in while it was sleeping."

"But...aren't mountain trolls primarily nocturnal?"

"Well, I know that now, thank you very much. Back to my story. The two of us silently crept up the side of the mountain and blasted apart the rock hiding the entrance..."

I smacked my forehead. And they thought it wouldn't be able to hear them...?

"...And then, we opened the door. It was locked, but a simple alohamora charm worked like a charm. Then, we went inside the mountain. It was dark inside, so we used our wands as torches. We walked down a long hallway, until we must have been at the center of the mountain. Then, we started passing rooms. One was filled with lots of musical instruments. Seriously—there was like a pianoforte, and a ginormous harp, and lots of pipes and flutes, and even something that looked like one of those newfangled saxamaphones!"

I prompted him to go on with his story.

"There were more rooms, and a lot of them were filled with treasure—gold cups and such. Some had jewelry in them that would even look good on you! And then, we finally got to the end of the hallway, and there was a single room at the end of it. Peeking in, we saw that it was a bedroom—a girl's bedroom, by the looks of it. There was a four-poster canopy bed in one corner, with light blue sheets. Beautiful dresses were laid out on top of it, as if someone had been trying to pick what to wear that night to a party. There was more furniture, but it was all very simple—very simple and girly. It was a big contrast to the other rooms—I mean the simpleness part of course, as I'm sure girls can like gold and instruments as much as the rest of us..."

I cut this fascinating dialogue short. "Regulus, where was the troll during all of your daring adventuring into his house?"

"I was getting to that!" he replied grumpily. "The troll* didn't appear until we started to choose what we would carry off with us. I was stuffing rubies the size of eggs down my socks when it suddenly appeared out of some corner. Real sudden, too. It asked if I would be its beloved. Well, of course I scoffed and said 'of course not!' However, it didn't seem to like that answer very much, so it grabbed Severus and stuffed it in a giant bird cage that was hanging up by the ceiling. While it was doing that, I took the time to escape. Running made all the rubies fall out of my sock! However, my conscience feels awfully guilty 'bout just leaving Sev there to rot, so just now, I went back there to try to rescue him. However, that didn't work out too well. I only just made it out in time. And when I saw you just standing by the shore of the lake calling my name, I thought it would get you too!"

"I didn't see anybody chasing after you," I replied.

"Huh? You didn't? Well, it must have given up by then, 'cuz I'm a very fast runner. But, I just couldn't manage to get Severus out. And now I feel supremely bad, because it was my idea in the first place to go there. I just don't know what to do now."

"Couldn't you talk to Professor Dumbledore? I know he's as nutty as a pinecone, but he still is pretty powerful. I bet he could release Severus from that mountain."

"Oh Cissy, I daren't ask him. I'm afraid of getting me and Severus into trouble for sneaking off during Care of Magical Creatures class."

"Okay, well, that's just too bad. Poor Severus. Well, I have class soon, so, see you later!"

"Narcissa wait! Couldn't you...help me?"

I was about to say a resounding 'no!", but then I looked at his pleading eyes, and my resolve crumbled away. "All right, I'll help you. But not right now, as I really do have class right now. I'll try to think of something later."

"Really, you will? Oh, thank you!" Then my cousin threw his arms around me in gratitude. I rolled my eyes and left for class.

* * *

><p>*For those that don't know, real actual trolls bear little resemblance to the way JK Rowling describes them in her books. They originated in Scandinavia, and this one just traveled to Hogwarts. They often resemble giant old men, with great big bushy white beards and eyebrows. The mountain trolls live in mountains, where they have many rooms full of treasures. However, they are also very in sync with nature, and some even say that they in fact are the very soul of the forest.<p> 


	9. Death and Doom for our heroine

**Chapter Nine: Death and Doom for our heroine**

I didn't really have class right away—I had just used that as an excuse to get away from Regulus and his intolerable lameness. I had to admit to myself—although Sirius had been sorted into Gryffindor and thus had betrayed the entire family, I had always felt more fascinated and intrigued by him. Not to mention that he was really handsome. Regulus, on the other hand, had always been everything that Sirius was not. For example, Regulus was boring, stupid, and just downright annoying. I still couldn't believe that he had just gone traipsing into some troll's den whistling and looking for treasure like it was a field trip.

Anyway, I still had a few hours before my next class—Divination—so I hiked down to the Slytherin common room, said the password (This time it was a verse selected from some poem by some silly English poet that Professor Slughorn was fond of:

"_Every morn and every night,_

_Some are born to sweet delight._

_Some are born to sweet delight,_

_Some are born to endless night."_)

and then I went to take a shower. After that, I grabbed a granola bar and quickly did some studying for Transfiguration class—in case we actually did any transfiguring in the next class. After an hour, Vera came in and we talked for a little bit about fluff (There was no way I was going to tell her about Regulus and his problems; I didn't want her to laugh at me. Besides, I had already decided that I was just going to forget about the entire ordeal—I really didn't care what happened to Severus anyway). Then, another hour passed and it was time for us to go to Divination. So, we grabbed our books and left.

The Divination classroom was also in a tower. This one, however, was easier to get to, as there was no sheer cliff-face that we had to scale. The classroom was dark and flowery smelling, and there were crystal balls on all of the tables. I was actually really excited for this class, because Divination was one of the subjects that I was most looking forward to*. Vera and I chose an empty table near the front of the room, and while we waited for everyone to get there, I eagerly gazed into the crystal ball, trying to see something. However, much to my dismay, I couldn't see anything except my dismal reflection. After we waited for five minutes, the teacher entered the room. She was oldish-looking, with long white hair, and she sort of looked like what I imagined a nun would look like underneath the habit. She also kind of looked like she could be Professor Dumbledore's twin sister.

"Hello class," she said in a kindly voice, "My name is Ariana Slughorn. I want everyone here to call me Ariana! Welcome to the wondrous, exciting, and extremely important subject of Divination! I know that most of you have already had me before in previous years, but for those of you that are new, I am serendipitously happy that I am finally meeting you, and I know that we will all become good friends."

She beamed at us with delight. I could see a couple of boys sitting in the corner of the classroom that were making gagging motions, but I ignored them. Some people were just so stupid—couldn't they see that this was going to be a fun and useful class?

"Now, because it is the first day of Divining the Future for some of you," she serenely continued, "We are going to start off easy. On each table is a crystal ball. I want each table to take turns peering into it, and use your textbooks, Unfogging the Future, to decipher what you see."

Once she was finished speaking, my table gathered around the crystal ball. Along with Vera and I, there were also a tall, dark, and handsome sixth-year Gryffindor named Frank Longbottom**, and a slender, square-jawed Gryffindor named Amelia Bones. For a Gryffindor student, she was okay. For example, this is what she first said to me:

"What's your name?"

"Narcissa."

"Narcissa? That's a pretty name."

Can't you see why I couldn't just dislike her? Even though she was in Gryffindor...

Anyway, we all took turns looking into the crystal ball. I went first, of course. First, I saw the face of Lucius Malfoy. According to the textbook, that meant that he was on my mind. Well, no duh! I didn't need a stupid textbook to tell me that—he's always on my mind! After that, I saw what looked like Eva Perón from Evita. According to the textbook, that meant that in my future, I was going to help lots of people while being very beautiful. That made me happy—I so desperately wanted to be beautiful. And finally, right when I was about to let Vera have a turn, I saw a big black dog. When I looked in the textbook, it said DEATHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AND DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!1111 I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this—I was too young to be doomed to die. But, then, right after all the capital letters, I saw a tiny footnote number. So, I went right to the bottom of the page and read it***. This made me feel kind of relieved, but mostly not. So, I raised my hand to ask Ariana about it. She was just shocked when I told her, but then she patted my shoulder and said "Oh, don't worry, sweet stuff. This was just your first day. You probably didn't even see the Grim—I bet it was just a baked potato or something." Then, she patted my shoulder again and moved on to the next table. I, however, did not feel very much reassured. Baked potato, my ass.

Later, when I was helping Vera decipher her visions (pirates waging war and James Potter [I desperately wanted to throttle her when she said that]), Professor Slughorn, the Potions teacher, suddenly walked in, his great moustaches swinging back and forth. He was clutching in his hands a brown paper bag.

"Dearest!" he called. "We switched our lunches up again!" This really made me stare, but nobody else did.

"Well," replied Ariana tartly, "If you would actually look in the paper sack to make sure you grabbed the right one before taking it, we wouldn't run into this problem so often. Now, just to spite you, I already ate half of the tuna fish sandwich—"

Professor Slughorn's moustache hairs noticeably drooped when she said this.

"—and the nectarine, just to teach you a lesson. Well, what are you going to do about it?"

"But...I don't like peanut butter and banana sandwiches!" protested Professor Slughorn.

"Well, that's just too bad!" Ariana smirked as she said this, and I got the feeling that she was enjoying this argument.

Amelia leaned over to me and whispered "They do this all the time—at least once a week. So by now, we're used to it."

That explained why none of the other students found this exchange at all interesting. "But wait," I whispered back to her, "You're telling me that they can't figure out how to keep their lunches straight? After how many years of being married and teaching at this school together?"

"Oh, they don't really get their lunches mixed up. They just pretend they do so they have an excuse to visit each other during class hours."

"But why?"

Amelia made a gesture that said 'just wait and watch.' So I did. After a few more minutes of friendly bickering, the two teachers then decided out loud that they would have to go into the nearby broom closet in order to get their lunch fiasco sorted out. They did so, and then I could hear loud snogging and smooching noises coming from the closet. I looked at Vera, horrified. She shrugged, as if to say 'well, they do this every week and we're all used to it now.' I decided to ignore the animalistic noises, and I started concentrating really hard on figuring out what my future held in store for me.

Thirteen minutes later, the two teachers came out of the broom closet, their hair really disheveled. "I'm glad we got that sorted out, sweetie pie!" Professor Slughorn called as he waddled out of the room.

Ariana walked to her chair, nearly falling over as she did so, and then she sat and surveyed her class giddily. "Where were we? Ah yes! Tea leaves are really useful when you're a tea clogger and you have a sudden urge to see—"

"Please, Ariana," a student called out, "We were learning about crystal balls!"

"Ah yes. Well, when trying to correctly view your future in a crystal ball—"

The door suddenly swung open again. This time, it was a haggard old man with brown stringy hair and wrinkles on his face. He was wearing a brown trench coat, was holding a magnifying glass up to his face, and he had a scrawny cat following him around his ankles.

"Who's that?" I whispered.

"That's Filch," Vera whispered back to me. "He takes care of the castle's grounds, and he doesn't tolerate mischief of any kind. That cat that's down by his ankles is Mrs. Norris. She a hideously mean old thing, and everybody just hates the pair of them."

Filch's eyes swiveled in our direction when Vera said this, as if he could hear what she had said. Then he walked over to Ariana and said "I'm just making a routine inspection of the classrooms, to make sure that everything is in order."

"Ah, yes!" Ariana replied in a high, wavering voice. "I'm sure that you'll find that everything is just fine, just randy dandy—peachy really!"

Filch cut her off. "Then why," he roared, "Did I just see your husband coming out of this room? I'm sure he wasn't illegally visiting you during class hours, right?"

Ariana shook her head. She looked like she was about to faint. The entire class was staring this time. I got the feeling that _this_ didn't happen every week.

Suddenly, the doors swung open again, and this time...Dumbledore walked in! Filch looked extremely started to see him, and he immediately removed his hands from around Ariana's neck. "Headmaster...I was just making a...routine inspection. But, everything looks just great, just topsy-turvy! So, I guess I'll be on my way now!" Without a backward glance, he and his cat quickly scuttled out of there.

I then watched to see why Professor Dumbledore was there.

"Hello Albus," Ariana called with relief, "What brings you here, my dear brother?"

I gasped. Professor Dumbledore was Ariana's brother?

"Yeah," Vera whispered, answering my question. "Couldn't you tell?"

"Ariana my sister!" Dumbledore rumbled. "I have a question for you! It's about our brother, Aberforth Dumbledore, and my lov—friend, Gellert Grindelwald!"

"Oh, okay," Ariana cried cheerfully. "What do you want to ask me?"

"Well, I wanted to have Gellert over for Thanksgiving this year—otherwise he gets so terribly lonely having to eat alone and all—you know how his entire family is dead. However, Aberforth flatly refused and said that it would wreck the tradition we Dumbledores have of eating solely with family. What do you think?"

"Oh, I don't know," Ariana replied anxiously. I noticed her hands were twisting and wringing nervously as she spoke. "I don't really care one way or the other, as long as everybody is happy and can get along."

"Oh, okay," Dumbledore said. "I just wanted your opinion. See you later." And with that, he spun on his heels and left.

"And back to the lesson!" Ariana cried gaily. She was cut short by the bell. "Never mind! Class dismissed!"

"That was an interesting lesson, Narcissa," Vera remarked as we walked out.

"Yeah," I replied. "I learned that I'm going to become very beautiful and die while thinking about Lucius Malfoy, and you have a disgusting fetish for James Potter. Ish!"

My mind was so preoccupied with thoughts of death that I didn't give another thought to Regulus and his situation.

* * *

><p>*We didn't have it at Blarneyland, because the school was running low on funds and so we had to cut all the useless programs such as art and music. For some reason, Divination was cut too.<p>

**Hey! I would never actually think that a Gryffindor was handsome; I was just making observations for detail's sake. That's called good narrating, cuz you guys can't see him.

***Also occasionally means that you will soon be romantically involved with an animagus whose alternate form is a big black dog. But, don't count on it.


	10. Troubling a Star

A/N: I know they don't have Thanksgiving in England. But as Dumbledore's parents were immigrants from America, it would make sense that the Dumbledore family would carry on the tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving. And ModernHippie999, I don't mind the feedback at all. It helps me explain things better.

**Chapter Ten: Troubling a Star**

I had a few hours to waste before my last class of the day—astronomy. Because we were going to be looking at the night sky, we had to wait for it to be night before we had class. So, I quickly got a carton of Chinese food to-go from the fast food court in the Great Hall, and then I hid in the dungeons in front of the entrance to the Slytherin common room, waiting for Lucius Malfoy to walk by. I wasn't obsessed or anything, I was just really curious about him.

I waited for a few hours and he never came, so, feeling bored, I was about to get up to do something else when I suddenly heard footsteps pattering down the hallway. I stayed in my hiding spot to see who it was. It was...that scrawny unattractively pale boy from the Hogwarts Express that was friends with James Potter—Remus Lupin. I was pretty sure that he was in Gryffindor, so I was really confused when he just silently took a seat outside of the door to the Slytherin common room*. Anyway, he just sat there, waiting, and I sat there in my hiding spot, just waiting for him to do something. After about five minutes of butt-numbing hell, I heard the sound of somebody else's footsteps pittering down the hallway toward us. Holding my breath, I saw that it was...that really skinny girl from the train—Lily Evans. She was dressed in a long white nightgown, and she was holding a candle in front of her chest like an angel on the top of a Christmas tree.

When Remus saw her, he got up, ran to her, and...kissed her! Really! Like, right on the mouth**. However, I personally didn't know that there was anything weird about this, and so I just watched, bored, as they passionately frenched for a few minutes. Then, Lily suddenly broke away from his groping hands, and said "I'm so worried about Severus! I know you can't understand why, because he's in Slytherin, but I just haven't seen him for a day or two and I...really care about him!"

Remus ran back to her and embraced her and said "It's okay. I'm sure he'll turn up eventually! Now, where were we?"

"Remus! Really! The last time I saw him, he said something crazy. Something...about a falling star and a great powerful weapon."

"What does that mean?"

"I'm not sure...I'm just worried that it got him in trouble...and that's why he's missing."

"Oh...well, I'm not sure what I can do to help, besides comfort you. But, why did you want to meet me right here in this weird location?"

Lily turned and looked at the sparkling wall that was the entrance to the Slytherin common room with what looked like joy in her eyes. "I used to come here to meet Severus, where we would talk and...oh, never mind. Anyway, I just hoped that talking to you here, in this location, would put an idea into my mind about how I might find him. But, I guess that hasn't worked so far."

Remus suddenly looked at his watch. "Why, look at the time! It's almost 10 o'clock! I have to get going!"

They quickly kissed goodbye, and then they each went their separate ways. Limbs aching, I moved from my position and prepared to go to astronomy class. What was that all about? I wondered. I now realized that other people were looking for Severus, not just Regulus. I briefly thought about telling Lily where he was, then I thought, well, what's the point? She won't be able to save him any more than Regulus was, and he had probably been eaten by now anyway.

I quickly went into the common room and grabbed my bag and stuff, then I started to go to my astronomy class. It was also in a tower (I sure was having a lot of classes in towers lately, wasn't I?) so I had quite the hike to go from the dungeons. I didn't have Vera to walk with, either, because I had told her earlier that I would meet her at the classroom. That's because I didn't want her hanging around when I was watching out for Lucius.

When I finally got to the classroom that was atop the tower, it was a little past ten o'clock. I hurried over to the spot that Vera had saved for me just as the teacher, Professor Sinistra, started the lesson. First, she handed out some star charts and stuff (really boring stuff!) and then she talked about different constellations. This was kind of interesting, because everybody in my family was named after a constellation. Except for...me. This is further proof of how unwanted I was and am in this world. After an hour or so, Professor Sinistra seemed to have had enough of everybody's yawning, and so she ordered everybody up onto the roof to look through telescopes at the night sky.

So, we all trooped up the ladder and got onto the roof. I looked out on the magnificent view that was Hogwarts castle at night seen from above. It really was breathtaking, with the candlelit turrets twinkling merrily, and the spiral rooftops practically reaching the stars. Anyway, once I had had enough of romanticizing the castle, I took my telescope out of my bag and joined the class in looking up at the night sky. I saw a bunch of noteworthy constellations and stars—like Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Sirius. It was all really stupid and boring—the entire time, I wondered why I had to learn all these useless facts. Right when a half hour on the roof had passed and I was getting really cold and ready to go, I heard Vera gasp. So, I looked at her to see what she was gasping about. She had her gold telescope pointed up at the sky. I pushed her face aside and looked into it to see what she was looking at, and, I saw...a shooting star. I watched as it fell and fell and fell...onto the grounds of Hogwarts by the lake! The reason why I bring attention to this sight was because I suddenly remembered what Lily had said earlier—how Severus had been talking about a falling star and a great weapon. I quickly looked around me, but none of my fellow classmates seemed to have noticed the falling star—just Vera.

"It was nothing, Vera," I informed her pompously. "Just a shooting star. But it's still up in the sky and all...it's not like it just fell onto the grounds right next to the lake, because that would be silly."

She rubbed her face where I had pushed her. "All right, Narcissa. Whatever you say."

Right after that, the bell rang and class was finished. Vera offered to walk with me back to the Slytherin common room, but I told her I had to ask Professor Sinistra a question. Then, she offered to wait for me. I then rolled my eyes and told her to buzz off. She then started crying, and as she ran off, she said I was being "inappropriately mean." However, I didn't really feel that bad about this, because I knew that I was just strengthening her up. She couldn't always be so sensitive and vulnerable in life.

Once she was gone, I started walking by myself down some dark and shadowy hallways. My plan was to sneak out of the castle and go to where I had seen the star fall on the ground. I wasn't sure why I was feeling this strongly—after all, I'm sure that lots of stars fall to earth every single day! But still, I thought it was kind of a weird coincidence that Severus goes missing, and then I hear Lily talking about how he was talking about falling stars right outside the entrance to the common room where I was sitting, and then I just happen to see a star fall that very night. I just thought it would be something worth checking out—without my annoying best friend Vera at my side. She was fun to be around when it came to some things, but when it came to serious, real life things, I would rather leave her behind. Hopefully I don't sound mean or anything—it wasn't my intent.

I walked down a dark and shadowy corridor toward the front door of Hogwarts. The castle was sort of spooky at night. Pearly ghosts drifted through walls at their heart's whim, and the eyes of the portraits followed my progress down the hallways. Suddenly, I heard a strange vibrating noise. It sounded kind of scary, and I had no idea where it was coming from. Until I realized that it was coming from me—I was shivering from the cold and from fear.

As I got to the main hall that was right by the main doors, I suddenly heard a noise—another noise. Because it was dark, I couldn't see what it was. And then, a bright beam of white light was suddenly shone in my eyes!

"I caught you!"

I tried looking past the light to see who was shining it at me, but it was too bright. It made everything else turn into ink blackness.

"Wait...Narcissa? What are you doing here? You're not the person I was expecting to see?"

By then, I had recognized the voice. It was Zephyr.

"Could you please shine that light elsewhere? You're blinding me!"

"Oh, sorry." He had the grace to look embarrassed, and then he sheathed his wand in his pocket. "It's just...you're not supposed to be out here right now. It's past midnight, for crying out loud. What are you doing out here anyway."

I hesitated, reluctant to tell him about the star. After all, it could be nothing, or it could be...something. "Wait a minute, what are you doing out here?"

Zephyr looked startled. "Oh, I'm just...patrolling the corridor...yeah!"

Suddenly, I heard another noise, like someone was walking down the grand staircase. Zephyr suddenly whipped his head around after the source of the noise, then he suddenly pushed me into a dark corner, pointed his wand at me, and said "Immobulus!" Immediately, I felt my limbs freeze, as if my body was going into rigor mortis. I couldn't move my mouth to talk, I couldn't move my eyes, and I could barely move my chest enough to breathe. Luckily, my body was pointed in the right direction so I could still see what was going on.

The person came down the staircase and into the light of Zephyr's wand. It was...James Potter.

"I should have known you would be coming here tonight, Potty," sneered Zephyr. "I knew that your little mudblood friend would have told you about Starlfall when Severus told her."

James also whipped his wand out, and he pointed his at Zephyr. "Don't call her a mudblood you butthead!" he roared at Zephyr.

"Ooh," Zephyr said in a high pitched voice. "I'm so scared now!"

James advanced toward Zephyr. "And I bet you think that you're going to stop me."

"What do you even want with the star, anyway? I doubt that it has any use for you."

James laughed like a maniac. "For one thing, if I get it, that means that your side won't have it!"

Zephyr pointed his wand at him. "Well, I'm not letting you get past me! And even if you did, you wouldn't be able to get the star anyway. Only someone who is wise, fair, and pure of heart may traverse the boundaries set in place by the ancient powers of Starlfall!

James started to wave his wand. "That certainly qualifies me more than you. Now, please excuse me. I need to hurry, as the star won't be around for much longer. Hocus Pocus!"

I saw Zephyr quickly counter his attack. There was a big flash of smoke, and when it all cleared, I saw that the two boys were both lying unconscious on the ground. Suddenly, I realized that I could move again, probably because Zephyr, the person who had cast the spell on me, was no longer awake.

I ran over to the two bodies on the ground and thought about reviving them. But then, I thought better of it. James had said that the star wouldn't be around for much longer, so I knew I needed to hurry. I still wasn't sure why the fallen star was so important (what on earth was Starlfall anyway?); I just knew that it was important, and so, I wanted to get to it. So, I stepped over the bodies, and opened the door. Because it was so big, it was pretty heavy, but I eventually managed to drag it open. And then, I ran out onto the grounds of Hogwarts.

There wasn't a moon, so it was practically pitch black. I lit my wand using the lumos spell, and then I set out for the lake. I could roughly remember where I had seen the star fall from the tower, but my memory wasn't perfect. Luckily, once I got closer to the shore of the lake, I could see a white twinkling light coming from the opposite side. It took me twenty minutes to get around the lake to where I saw the light, and by then, I was getting worried, worried that by the time I got there, I would be too late. Finally, I arrived at the source of the light. Situated right between the lake and the base of a mountain were two glowing white rocks. It looked to me like they had originally been one rock that had split into two from the force of the impact. Anyway, I hesitantly reached out my hands to pick them up, remembering Zephyr saying that only someone who is wise, fair, and pure of heart could pick the star up. For a second, it seemed like my hands had run into an invisible barrier, but then, they were suddenly able to get through. I picked up the two pieces and held them up to my face, staring at them with wonder. Suddenly, a flash of movement caught my eye. It was coming from right in front of me. I looked beyond the glow of the rocks to see someone—a man, it looked like—running toward me. Although I didn't know who he was, I started to feel really scared of him, and a part of me knew that under no circumstances should I let him have the stones. I turned to run, and...a big hairy hand suddenly came out of nowhere and grabbed me by the scruff of my neck. I started to black out, but not before seeing who the man was that was running toward me. It was...Remus Lupin.

* * *

><p>*He didn't know what it was, though, of course.<p>

**I bet you guys didn't see that coming!


	11. Heigh Ho, Nobody's Home

**Chapter Eleven: Heigh, Ho, Nobody's Home**

I woke up in utter darkness with a pounding headache. It felt like there was something worse than butterflies encased in my braincase that were yearning to break free. Groaning, I sat up and tried to get my bearings. As my eyes adjusted to what little light there was, I could see that I was entrapped in what looked like a giant bird cage hanging in the air. And then, I suddenly noticed that there was something right next to me that was moving...in a breathing fashion. I recoiled in horror, thinking it was some kind of animal. Then, as I looked closer, I saw that it was just Severus, and he appeared to be sleeping. I shuddered, repulsed by the idea that I had just been lying next to him. And then, I realized that if I was trapped in a cage with Severus, that meant that I was in the den of the troll.

Memories from the previous night came rushing back to me. I remembered that I had gone to find a fallen star that was by the lake. When I had found it, I saw that it had been split into two halves by the force of the earth. I had picked both of them up and put them in my pocket right as I saw Remus Lupin running at me. And then...something had grabbed me. Now I knew that that thing had been the troll.

Something—my conscience, maybe—told me to look in my pocket. So, I did, and I only saw one half of the star lying there. Frantically, I began to search around me in the cage for the other half. But I knew I wouldn't find it there, because if it was still in the cage with me, I would have been sure to see the glow. The troll must have gotten it after it had picked me up. I then peered out between the bars of the cage, trying to see a telltale glow. But there was nothing.

I suddenly heard the noise of someone shifting behind me. Severus was waking up, so I turned back around to face him and ask him if he knew what was going on. When he saw that I was awake, he became ridiculously happy.

"Oh Cissy, you're all right! When that troll flung you in here, I feared the worst had happened—that you had...died. But when I felt your heartbeat beneath my hand, I knew you were still alive! So, I huddled next to you to give you my precious warmth!"

I told him to shut up. I thought about asking him if he had seen the troll with a small glowing thing, but then I thought better of it. Zephyr had said to James that Severus had told someone about the star, so I knew that he knew about it. However, I still wasn't sure whose side he was on, and so I didn't know if I could trust him.

Once he had finished blubbering about how happy he was about my safety, Severus suddenly seemed to have a thought. "Narcissa," he asked me, "What day is it?"

I froze suspiciously. Why was he asking me this? "I dunno," I said convincingly. "I mean, I don't know how long I've been in here, so how can I tell you what day it is?"

"You've only been in here for a few hours...no more than five!" he replied hopefully. "What day was it when you were put in here?"

"Umm...I can't really remember. That troll must have really conked my head good."

"It wasn't Tuesday, was it? Or Wednesday?"

"No, I think it's still Monday!" I said helpfully, even though it probably was Wednesday by now. If five or so hours had passed since I had first found the star, that would make it about 5 a.m. right now. But still, I wasn't about to tell _him_ that.

"You're telling me the truth, right? Because if it really is past Tuesday night, and I missed Starlfall...you are telling me the truth, right?"

"Yes," I insisted uncomfortably. I just couldn't trust a slobbering hook-nosed git like him.

"Well," he mumbled on, "Even if it is past Tuesday night, Lily might have gone for it for me. I did tell her about it. Because I just can't let it get into the hands of the death eaters, that's for sure. They'll use its power only for evil. And Zephyr heard me telling Lily about it. What am I going to do?" He suddenly seemed to realize that he had spoken all of this out loud.

"Don't worry," I reassured him. "I didn't just hear any of that about the enormous powers of a falling star!"

"And you're sure it isn't Tuesday night yet?"

I was starting to get really bored of this conversation. "I just don't know!" I yelled crazily. "It could be Friday for all I know!"

"Shhhhh! You'll wake the troll!" Severus quickly covered my mouth with his hand. "How did the troll capture you anyway? They usually don't come down off of their mountain. You weren't taking a hike by yourself by it, were you?"

I still did not want to tell him my true purpose for why I had gotten captured. "Yes," I sighed dramatically. "I was just taking a little walk, when I was...captured, by that thing."

Suddenly, we heard a loud rumbling noise coming from deeper inside the mountain. "It's the troll!" Severus whispered frantically. "Now, when it asks if you'll be its beloved, make sure you answer yes!"

Personally, I thought that sounded like a pretty neurotic thing to say to a troll, but I didn't have any time to argue. The troll then lumbered into the room with a flaming torch in one hand. By the light it provided, I could see that I was in a large room that was full of old broken junk. Like, there was a broken rocking horse in one corner, and a piano that was missing all of its black keys in another corner. The cage I was in was a large wooden one that was in the shape of a bird cage, with a flat bottom and a rounded top. It was suspended from the ceiling by a hook.

While I had always pictured that trolls would look like animals, this one looked...almost human. He was almost eight feet tall, and he had a fluffy white beard that went all the way down to his belly button, where he had tucked it into his belt. He also was wearing a brimless green pointed hat that bent at the edge, and he kind of reminded me of one of the dwarves from Snow White—just supersized.

He put the torch on a holder on the wall, and then he came around to the cage. Opening it, he stuck one hand inside and reached for me. I quickly shinnied over to the other side of the cage, desperate to avoid his humongous hand. But then, he just grabbed the cage with both hands and tilted it toward him. Severus managed to grab onto the side, but I wasn't quick enough, and so I went tumbling out of the door—right at the troll. He grabbed me with one hand and held me up to the light—examining me. Finally, he spoke.

"Will you be my beloved?" he asked me in a low, tumultuous voice like the clash of thunder after the lightning.

I tried to look him in the eye, but frankly, I was too scared to. So instead, I stared at his nose and said, with my teeth chattering out of fear, "Yes, gladly."

I could see out of the corner of my eye that Severus was staring at me with amazement evident in his soulless black eyes. Even though he had told me to say yes, he never thought I would have the courage to actually say it. I was even surprised by the words that had come out of my mouth. Agreeing to marry this...creature seemed like the craziest thing I had ever agreed to. But then again, I was desperate. Desperate to get out of here and see Lucius again, mainly. I knew that I would never accomplish that goal by being locked up in a cage forever and always.

The troll set me down on the floor of the room then, and made a weird face at me. With a start, I realized that he was smiling. And then...moisture started to run down his face. He was crying with happiness! I smiled back, afraid of what would happen if I did otherwise. Then, he gently took my hand and led me down a long hallway. Just as Regulus had told me, we passed lots of rooms on the way—rooms full of musical instruments, and rooms full of jewels, and rooms full of sculptures of naked Greek people, and so on. When we got to the end of the hallway, there was a single room—a girl's bedroom.

"My dearest, this will be your bedroom," the troll told me. He didn't sound half as scary anymore. "Get dressed in the finest gown you can find, because I am going to invite all of my friends over for our wedding supper tonight."

A question suddenly sprang into existence in my mind. "What's for supper?"

He grinned again, and this time, it seemed to me like a wicked grin, but I had already predicted his answer. "Why, we will have that black-haired Christian to eat. Although he's a bit on the scrawny side, human meat is the best!" I gulped. I didn't like Severus very much, so I doubted that he would taste very good to me.

I walked into the bedroom and shut the door behind me. I had to think up a way to get out of here and fast! I really did not want to marry this guy! So, I decided that when everybody was distracted by Severus-pie, I would make a run for it. Until then, I would play along with their game. I walked to the closet and opened it; inside were like a thousand dresses. I took a few minutes just to look through all of them—having two older sisters, I never really got anything that was new, so having all of these beautiful dresses was like heaven to me. I finally picked out a silver dress that seemed to have been sewed from moonlight and dewdrops. It fit me perfectly—it was low-cut in front and was narrow-waisted, which showed off my body to my every advantage. Then, I walked over to a jewelry box that was a dresser and opened it. All of the jewelry inside glimmered like the inside of Medusa's box. I finally picked out two earrings that looked like moondrops. In fact, they rather resembled my piece of star. Speaking of which, I put that in an inside pocket of my dress, because I didn't want to just leave it lying around in the open with trolls on the loose. Finally, when that was all ready, I exited the bedroom and walked back down the hallway.

I was unsure of where I should go next, so I decided to just keep walking until I found someone. When I heard voices, I turned into one room to find a large dining room. My future troll-husband was there, and he was holding Severus over his shoulder. He was talking to a large ugly troll-girl. I walked over to them and when he saw me, his face lit up in a huge grin.

"Ah, my beloved, it is good to see you again! You look exquisite in that dress. I want you to meet my daughter, Gjertrud."

He has a daughter? I thought skeptically. I carefully shook her hand, and then he (I still didn't know his name) said "Well, I have to go invite people over to celebrate. I just told Gjertrud that she should kill this Christian while I'm gone. If you want, you can help her, but you don't have to do anything you don't want to. He lightly patted my head, and then he left through the door.

Gjertrud carried Severus into a small room connected to the dining room that I assumed was the kitchen. Because I had nothing better to do, I decided to follow her in to watch what she was going to do to him. She set the male Slytherin student on a large stone preparation table, and then picked up a huge ax that had been lying in the corner.

"Now," she said, "I'm not quite certain how to do this..." She looked at me for help. I shrugged.

"I can help you!" Severus exclaimed.

"You can?" Gjertrud asked doubtfully.

"Sure I can!" He hopped down off of the table. "I can demonstrate if you like." She handed him the ax. He lifted it experimentally for a moment, testing its weight and balance, and then he said "Just put your head down on the table for a second." She did as he said, and before I could look away...he swung the ax down, efficiently chopping off her head! Blood splattered everywhere, getting all over my beautiful dress. I looked at him with horror.

He shrugged calmly. "Truthfully, I preferred this to the alternative. Now, the troll will be back soon with the guests, and we're locked in here, so we can't escape. Before he arrives, we should prepare the place for him.

I didn't know what he meant at first, but he picked up Gjertrud's head and said to me "Take this and put it in your bed. Tuck the blankets up to its chin so it looks like you're asleep in bed. I did as he said, though I hated getting the light blue silken sheets all bloody. When I got back to the kitchen, I saw that Severus was cutting up the body and making it into stew. When he saw my questioning look, he explained. "They'll think that you're asleep in bed and that the stew is made from me*."

Once he finished, we went and hid in a dark room while we waited for the trolls to arrive. Severus told me that when they had eaten a lot and were asleep, we would come out of our hiding places, take the key from the troll's tunic, and escape. After about another half hour of waiting, we started to hear raucous singing in the distance, coming closer. I held my breath with fear. They were coming! I had a feeling that something in our plan would not work out, and I would be forced to marry a man—troll—that I did not love.

* * *

><p>*This entire troll story is based on a true story, really seriously. You think I could make something like this up from thin air?<p> 


	12. My Beloved

**Chapter Twelve: My Beloved**

We huddled in the corner, silently holding our breaths with terror. At least I was; I couldn't speak for Severus because I wasn't omnivorous. Then I heard the door swing open, which was followed by the sound of loud stomping footsteps—trolls. From where I was hiding, I had a limited view of the dining room and kitchen, and so I was able to watch as one troll (the one I was supposed to marry) dipped a ladle into the pot that was on the stove and then tasted it.

"Mmm!" He licked his lips. "Tasty Christian stew!"

Severus and I breathed sighs of relief that he didn't realize that it was his daughter, not Severus, in the stewpot.

"Wait a minute!" He suddenly stopped eating. "Where is my beloved future bride? Why is she not here to welcome me home?"

"It's okay!" another troll said. "I just checked her bedroom, and she's in bed sleeping."

The first troll smacked him upside the head with a tree branch he pulled out of his belt. "Don't watch her while she's sleeping, you Thor-damn creeper. That's going to be my job!"

I shuddered violently with disgust. I was also getting anxious to get out of there. My legs were starting to fall asleep because I was sitting on them, and I had no idea how long it was going to take for all the trolls to fall asleep—if our plan worked at all.

Suddenly, I heard a doorbell ring. "I'll get it!" a troll announced. He walked away, and a few minutes later, he came back with...Azalea! Severus and I stared in amazement. What was she doing here? She also was dressed in a really kinky long red dress. It was low cut in front, and it had long slits running up the sides where her legs were. All the trolls stopped eating and stared at her with lust and desire in their eyes. They burned with the heatful intensity of one thousand hot suns. I looked at Severus and saw that he was also looking at her with the same expression in his eyes as the trolls. Heck, I probably would have too if I were bi or something. Because let me stress: Azalea is a looker even on her worst day, and in that dress, well, there's not a word I can use to describe her.

Suddenly, one of the trolls—my troll—seemed to come to his senses. "Hey, wait! What are you doing here? I didn't invite you!"

Azalea gyrated her hips sensually. "I have come to accept your offer of marriage."

All of the trolls gasped. "But...but I'm already getting married to someone..." he said disappointedly.

Azalea ran her hand up and down her body. "But...wouldn't you rather have me?" she asked quietly.

"Well, yes..."

"I know," she said with authority. "We can kill the other girl and eat her for second-supper, and you can marry me instead!"

"Okay!" the troll said with excitement. The entire crowd started to troop to the bedroom where they believed I was lying...the same place where in fact the head of Gjertrud was. Severus and I looked at each other in frightened fear.

"What do we do now?" I mouthed wordlessly.

He shrugged with despair. Suddenly, we heard a rageful howling come from the direction of the bedroom. "Well," I said, "I think they discovered our little deception." We braced ourselves, preparing to fight for our lives. And suddenly, there was silence. Like, seriously—all the noise that the trolls had been making stopped. But still, I was cautious, because I knew it could be a trick. And then, I heard footsteps coming back toward me. I peered out of my hiding spot and saw...Azalea. And she was...alone! Both Severus and I rushed over to her.

"What happened?" I whispered loudly. "Where are the trolls?"

She looked really relieved to see us. "I knocked them all out with one spell!" she announced proudly, waving her wand around. "And I am so happy to see you two safe and sound. I didn't want to put the trolls out of action until I knew where you were. But when they saw that head—" she shuddered "—I knew I couldn't wait any longer, because they would have killed me, and you guys too if they had found you."

"How did you know that we were in this troll-cave?" I asked curiously.

Azalea looked slightly hesitant to answer that, and then she finally said "I heard from Regulus that a troll had got Severus. I was already familiar with these trolls here—I had had...previous dealings with them. So, I set out to free him. I also knew from Vera Qorewyn that you, Narcissa, were also missing. I put two and two together and decided that there was a good chance that you were also here. Sure enough, I was right."

"Well," I declaimed, "I can't tell you how grateful I am for all of your help. If it weren't for you, I would probably still be sitting in there, wondering if I was going to survive the night."

By now, we had walked to the door that separated the troll's lair from the outside. Opening it, we were suddenly struck with strong angled sunlight. According to my calculations and the angle of the sun, it was probably about 5 p.m. I had been in that troll's house for more than a day!

Shortly after rays of sunlight hit Azalea, she recoiled, and then fell to the ground and started convoluting. I stared at her in amazement. She was a vampire.

No, wait, she wasn't. She was merely changing form. Because, as I found out half a minute later, she wasn't really Azalea Townsend. She was...Lucius Malfoy.

"Lucius?" Both Severus and I stared at him in utter amazement and wonder. Then, something clicked in my brain. He must have drunk polyjuice potion to change into Azalea in order to rescue us! The trolls distrusted human men because they thought they were all Christians. A woman, however, would be able to seduce them, and thus deceive them.

"Oh Lucius," I looked up at him with pure adoration evident in my eyes. "I wouldn't be able to get along without you." I was also relieved that he wasn't acting moody like he had been acting that one time after Defense against the Dark Arts class.

We all started walking back to Hogwarts. Shyly, I reached over and took Lucius's hand and...he let me! He even held my hand back! I was so happy—I felt like I was at the top of the world. Severus looked really depressed when he saw us holding hands, but he didn't do anything about it. I think he was finally figuring out that he was waaaaaaaay out of my league. I was so joyful that as we walked, I started singing the song "Into the Woods" from Into the Woods. I'm not sure why I was singing that song—I think it was because the trolls reminded me of a fairy tale I had once heard. Though really, my heart was feeling so free and lighthearted that we should have been singing "Out of the Woods". Anyway, the three of us held hands and skipped all the way back to Hogwarts, singing as we went, and the entire world looked like one big happy sunny meadow. I even saw the Savage watching us from his hut, and he was shaking his head with jealousy that he wasn't skipping with us.

Once we got back to Hogwarts, I gestured to Severus that he should go in without us. He looked really sad, but he understood. Really, some people are just meant to be alone forever. I then turned to Lucius, and looked deep into his beautiful stormy azure eyes, and they were simply amazingly beautiful. We stood there like that for a few minutes, just holding hands and looking into each other's eyes on the front steps of Hogwarts. And then, optimistically, I tilted my face up toward his...he bent his face down toward mine...and... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...he kissed me! And...it was the most gloriously heavenly sensation in the whole entire universe! I almost fainted, but instead, I started kissing him back. It was soooooo romantic. His lips were so warm and soft and velvety and scrumptious and wet and simply amazing! After what felt like a lifetime in paradise, but was probably only seven or eight minutes, we broke apart, gasping for air. And then, we looked at each other and smiled shyly. He offered me his hand again, and together, we walked into Hogwarts. For whatever reason, I noticed that a few idiots were gawking at us from the windows. Losers! Hadn't they ever seen a couple in love before? Oh well, they were probably just jealous. And Lucius and I were so perfect for each other...

We decided that we would then get dinner from the Great Hall together. Because I had been in the troll's den for an entire day, I had missed all my classes for that day. This was too bad, because it was supposed to be my first day of Charms and Herbology class. But then again, if that troll hadn't had captured me, I never would have kissed Lucius, which was the best thing that had ever happened to me. So, I didn't feel too bad about missing class.

We sat together at one end of the Slytherin table while we ate. We didn't talk much, but we held hands the entire time. And there was a lot of staring into each other's eyes. His were so dreamy. However, I did make one weird observation about him—he only drank out of a little flask that he kept on his belt. And when I asked him about it, he said he felt safer that way. I thought that was kind of weird...it was almost like he wasn't telling me some little detail that might be very very important to this story.

When I wasn't staring into Lucius's eyes, I looked around me at the other people in the Great Hall. Much to my satisfaction, Bellatrix and Andromeda were both staring at me with their mouths open. I knew that they were green with envy that the hottest boy at Hogwarts—or anywhere—was mine. I also noticed that members of the Death Eaters club that were present—like Zephyr and the real Azalea—were also staring at us, like they couldn't believe their eyes. I guess Lucius had not informed them of his decision to start being with me, and only me.

After we finished eating, we walked back to the Slytherin common room together, holding hands the entire time. I was starting to think that after this, I wouldn't be able to bear ever being away from him for a single moment ever again. We then sat together in the common room and tried to do homework, but I had a really hard time concentrating on my Potions essay because...he was around. Every few minutes, our knees would accidentally brush, and we would look up at each other and blush. See! Weren't we perfect for each other?

Well, after a couple of hours of that knee-brushing torture, I started to feel a little tired. It was getting late, after all. I told darling Lucius that I was getting tired, and then he picked me up in his arms (I wanted to swoon—it felt so good) and carried me to the door of my dormitory. Then he set me down. I took two steps away from him and...it started to hurt! Being away from him, I mean. So, I quickly rushed back to him and ran into his arms. He comforted me while lightly stroking my hair, and told me to get dressed in my pajamas and come right back out—we were going to go somewhere.

Well, of course, that made me feel really excited, so I quickly ran to my dormitory, got dressed in a lacy see-through nightgown, ignored Vera when she asked what I thought I was doing, and ran back out to my dearest. Then, he took my hand and led me out of the Slytherin common room and down a hallway. I started to wish I had worn a robe or something, because students and teachers that we passed stared at us. We walked for about five minutes, and then he turned in on a small abandoned corridor.

"Pumpkin, where are we going?" I asked him flirtily.

"Just wait and see," he replied coyly.

At the end of the corridor was a painting of a knight. He—the knight—shouted at us to say the password.

"My beloved," Lucius said.

And then, the painting swung outward to reveal...a room. We crawled in, Lucius turned on a light, and I saw that it was a bedroom.

"We can sleep here together tonight and nobody will disturb us," Lucius told me.

I squealed with delight and flung my arms around him. Then I asked, "But, where are we? What is this room?"

"This, my dear, is the prefect's bedroom. It's an optional bedroom that only prefects can use. I, however, know the password."

"Oh Lucius, you're so adventurous and free-spirited!"

He then carried me over to the bed. I lay down next to him and we passionately made out for like, an hour or two. After that, exhausted, we both went to sleep. You see, we are both too righteous to go any further than that. Also, everyone knows that pure-bloods don't have sex before marriage; we're just too good for that.


	13. Ah Poor Bird

**Chapter Thirteen: Ah Poor Bird**

I woke up in the morning next to my dear Lucius. I watched him for a few minutes as he slept in adoration, loving the way his chest rose up and down as he breathed. Lucius Malfoy was perfectly beautiful even in sleep, with his long blonde lashes framing his perfect and gorgeous face and his lips parted slightly. I just couldn't help myself as I snuggled closer and lightly pressed my mouth to his. Suddenly... ... ...he was kissing me back!

I sighed in ecstasy as we starting entwining our arms and legs while never breaking the kiss. After about a minute, he detached his mouth from mine and put it on my neck. I started gasping uncontrollably as feelings I had never felt before started rushing though my body. After we were done, we got up and left the prefect's bedroom. We walked down the hallway of Hogwarts back to the Slytherin common room so I could change back into real-life clothes. It was Thursday and I had class today—all the classes that I had on Monday, I had again today. I guess the way my whole schedule thing works is that I have Potions class, History of Magic class, and Transfiguration class on Mondays and Thursdays; Defense against the Dark Arts class, Divination class, and Astronomy class on Tuesdays and Fridays, and double hours of Charms and Herbology on Wednesday. Unfortunately, I had missed all of my Wednesday classes due to an unfortunate incident*.

Anyways, after that long dramatic soliloquy, it was time for me to go to Potions class. I tearfully said goodbye to my love—I had wanted to take him with me for show-and-tell, but Lucius had laughed gently at that idea and told me I was a silly dear. So wearily, and all alone in the world, I trudged tragically to Potions class, when suddenly, in the hallway, I saw...Remus Lupin! Memories suddenly came flooding back to me like water in a sieve. Maybe Remus had taken the other half of the star, because maybe it had fallen out of my pocket when the troll had picked me up.

I trotted over to him angrily. "Remus you bastard dodo! What did you do with the other half of the star?"

He acted all confused when I said this. "What? I don't know what you're talking about!"

Because I was so angry, I kneed him in the groin. And when he was rolling around on the ground, I spat on him. Then, because I was getting late for class, I turned and left. I would torture the information out of him later.

Once I got to Potions class, I sat by Vera, of course (with that effing pedophile James right behind me again!), but I didn't really feel like talking to her right now. I was too busy thinking about you-know-who**. We didn't have any fun in Potions class today...Professor Slughorn just talked about potions and stuff. I was really depressed—more depressed than I had ever felt in my life. All of Professor Slughorn's diagrams on the white board turned into happy couples in my mind—I felt so alone. It must have been some kind of Freudian logic or something.

After an hour, the bell rang and I walked to my next class—History of Magic—with Vera tagging along faithfully at my side like an obedient eunuch. We took our seats, and I stared depressedly at the ground as I waited for class to begin. After about four minutes, it was time for class to begin, so Professor Binns walked into the room, and following him uncertainly was...Miley Cyrus! ! ! I gasped. Nobody else did, though, probably because nobody else follows the muggle news like I do. I'm not nerdy or anything—I just like to know what's going on in the world.

"Miley, what are you doing here girl?" I asked her incredulously.

She blinked at me. "Hey, I'm magical—really! I just had to keep it a secret from all of my phans, so I had to be home-schooled. But, once I stopped doing Hannah-Montana, I was free to go to a public school again, like Hogwarts. So, here I am!"

"Well, why'd you stop doing Hannah Montana?"

She stared at me like I was some idiotic 11-year old girl. "Why do you think? I fucking hated that show. It just...screwed with my life! It was like...I was selling myself to a bunch of stupid tween girls. It was uncool!"

I stared at her. She certainly looked cool now. She had on a low-cut shirt that showed a lot of cleavage, a ripped mini-skirt with chains, and hooker boots. "Don't worry," I told her, "It's not like I ever watched Hannah Montana or anything."

"Oh, you're all right then." She smiled at me saucily, and then she took a seat next to me. Vera glowered at me...I knew she was just jealous that I had a new friend, and of course, Vera had no idea who Miley was. Vera was just...dumb.

The lesson was really super boring. Professor Bins just droned on about the ancient wizard space exploration age. I had already learned all of this at Blarneyland. So, I was really bored. It seemed that Miley had already learned about the entire lesson too, so, the entire time, we passed each other notes. She was really fun to write to! Like, for example, she asked me if I liked anybody at Hogwarts. I described Lucius to her and told her that he was my boyfriend. Then, I asked her what house she had gotten sorted into. She wrote Gryffindor. I stared at her in shock. "GRYFFINDOR! YOU'RE IN GRYFFINDOR? Miley, you have to get out of there! Gryffindor sucks! You should ask for a resort!"

Miley started crying. "I know, I already tried, but they said that the hat's decision was final."

"They?" I asked demandingly, "Who's they?"

"Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall! They're so mean!"

"Well, that explains it. They were both in Gryffindor, and so they wanted someone as awesome as you to be in their house, because let's face it—everybody in Gryffindor is a motherfucking goober. But don't worry, I know that at heart...you are truly a Slytherin."

Miley suddenly stopped crying when I said that and stared at me...with pure emotion in her eyes, like the way Lucius looked at me last night. It was as if...she loved me. "You really mean that Narcissa?" she asked me. "About me being at heart a Slytherin?"

"I certainly do!" I declared. Then, we hugged each other. I really did feel bad for her—being stuck in Gryffindor is like, what happens to people in Hell who behave poorly. That's where they go.

"Whatever art thou blithering nincompoops going on about?" Professor Bins asked us crossly. Ooops. I kept forgetting that just because he was dead, that didn't mean that he couldn't hear us.

"Oh, nothing, sir," I screamed dramatically. "Please, prither continue on with thy lecture."

Professor Bins gave me a dead look. "Young maiden, are thou making fun of me?"

"No."

"I conceive it is for the best intentions if I give thou detention tonight."

"NONONONONONONONONONON!" I wailed loudly. I had been planning on spending tonight with Lucius. This would just wreck everything! But, my pleading was to no avail. And so, it was with a heavy heart that I left History of Magic class that day. I had an hour-long break before my next class, Transfiguration, so Miley and I went down to the great hall for lunch. We got tacos, and then we went outside to sit in the courtyard under some trees in the sunlight. It was only the first day of September, and it was still warm enough to sit outside, even in England.

I was just sitting there, enjoying the tacos and the sunlight, when suddenly...

"Oh my god Narcissa! Who's that guy over there? He's so fucking hot!"

I followed her gaze to see who she was pointing at. It was...my Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor. Only...he looked younger than when I had seen him in class. For one thing, there weren't any stitches on his face—it was perfectly smooth.

"Umm...that's one of my teachers, Professor."

"Really? Gawd...he's so hawt! Could you introduce us?"

I didn't really want to, because I wasn't the type of girl who hit on her teachers, but I also wanted Miley to think I was cool like her. So, I walked over to him with her and said, "Professor, I would like you to meet my friend, Miley."

He looked up at us, all confused. "What are you talking about bitch? I'm not a professor! My name is Tom Riddle and I'm a student in Slytherin."

I stared at him in surprise. "Really?" I mean, he looked so much like Professor. Just younger and smoother.

"You had better believe it." He winked at me, and then he looked at Miley. And then looked at her again. And then did a triple-take. "Holy Cow! Aren't you Miley Cyrus the Disney star?"

Miley looked flattered that he had recognized her. She also seemed really shy, and she looked down at the ground when she talked to him. "Ex-Disney star actually. I became way too good for that money-making corporal fucktard corporation, so I left to become a bigger star here at Hogwarts."

Tom took her arm. "I agree with you. I also think you are too good for Disney." And then...he walked off with her smiling and giggling at him." I couldn't believe it. She was also deserting me. Everybody I meet leaves me for someone else! I had had it. I was ready to end my pitiful existence. So, I looked around for a weapon to stab myself with. But, other than the fork I was holding, I couldn't find one. And that would probably be a very slow way to die. So then, I ran back into Hogwarts and started running up flights of stairs because I intended to throw myself off the roof like a romantic martyr. I had almost got to the very top when suddenly...Professor McGonagall appeared out of nowhere.

"Narcissa Black, don't tell me you were planning on being late for my class again?"

I have to admit, I'm a little scared of Professor McGonagall. This was only heightened by what I had said earlier—how people who were bad in Hell went to Gryffindor. That meant that...she was worse than Satin! Because I was too scared to kill myself when she was watching, I turned and followed her to the Transfiguration classroom. I had to sit next to Penelope the psycho prick from the Twilight Zone again, and I was not happy about that. I'm pretty sure that as I leaned over to put my stuff down, she looked down my shirt. I thought about punching her, but then again, I was scared that Professor McGonagall would yell at me if I punched her, so I refrained. Besides, I already had detention for tonight; I didn't want detention any more times this week.

Because we had not done any transfiguring at the last lesson, Professor McGonagall decided to postpone more dance lessons until next Monday. In the meantime, we would actually do in class what we were supposed to do. I was extremely grateful for this, mainly because that meant it would be another couple of days before I had to deal with Penelope again, face-to-face.

Anyway, we didn't do anything really hard in class—we were just transfiguring our desks into dairy cows. It was really kind of boring.

After class, I ran away as fast as I could from Penelope and all those other losers who thought they had a chance at being my friend. And I ran straight into...Lucius!

"Lucius love!" I screamed. "Am I ever glad to see you!" He was really happy to see me too! I could just tell by the lustful look in his eyes. He grabbed my arms and pinned me to the wall, then we started making out. Suddenly, I could feel something hard beneath my belt. "Lucius!" I chided. He shrugged, but I forgave him. I guess he couldn't help it.

Suddenly, I remembered...and I started crying. "Oh Lucius! I can't go on a date with you tonight! I...I...I got prickin' detention!" I started crying really hardly against his chest as he rubbed my back soothingly.

"It's okay," he said. "I'll just see you tomorrow. We have all the time in the world for our relationship."

I nodded my head. He was right. He was always right. Suddenly, the clock started chiming. It was nine p.m. "Well," I said, "I gotta get going to detention."

"Okay babe," he said winkingly. "I'll meet you tomorrow night...at the prefect's bedroom."

"Okay honey." I said. When he said that, something warm and fuzzy seemed to melt inside of me. Very reluctantly, I turned and left to go to Professor Binns' office. When I got there, he said to me:

"Misses Narcissa, for thou detention, thou shall... ... ...sweep thy dingay dungeons... ... ... ... ...with a toothbrush."

I took the toothbrush from him and started to cry. "Ok," I said. I slowly waltzed down to the dungeons and started scrubbing at the floors. After a couple of hours, I wasn't even halfway done! I had never realized how massive the dungeons were until now.

At one point, I was kneeling in a dark hallway that I had never been in before, still cleaning. Suddenly, I heard a moan. Like, seriously, a real honest-to-goodness moan. I was curious about who was moaning, so I got to my feet and followed the noise to a door. Hesitantly, I tried the handle, and...it opened. So, I cautiously stuck my head inside the room, and there, chained to the wall like a sexy avenging angel, was...Lucius Malfoy.

* * *

><p>*If you've been reading along so far, you'll know what I mean. If not, what the hell are you waiting for? Go back and read the previous couple of chapters!<p>

**And I'm not talking about Sirius or Voldemort, dummy.


	14. In My HEART of HEARTS

**Chapter 14: In My HEART of HEARTS**

I stared at him in utter shock. The room he was in looked like a legit dungeon room. He was chained to the wall by two handcuffs—one on each hand, and they were stretched out pretty far on the wall, which meant that his arms were stretched out to either side, parallel with the ground. He also was completely naked, except for a white towel wrapped around his waist. This meant that I had a perfect view of the contours of his sculpted chest—he was like the statue of David—perfect. The chill from the dungeon gloom made his nipples stand out invitingly, and so I just stood there, looking him up and down. He looked like...Prometheus, chained to the cliff so a bird could peck out his liver every day forever, and I wanted to be the one to do that.

Suddenly, something occurred to me. Why was Lucius imprisoned down here when I had just seen him a few hours ago? Had he gotten in trouble since then? But, it wasn't the practice to chain students up in the dungeon, was it?

"Well," he spat, "Are you going to free me, or are you going to stand there gawking at my manlihood all day?"

"What are you doing here?" I finally managed to ask.

"It's really embarrassing, but a Gryffindor, Remus Lupin, managed to drug me and then chain me up down here. I've been here since Tuesday night, and nobody's found me yet, except you just now. That just goes to show how pathetic and worthless all the staff is in this place."

"Wait!" I protested, "You couldn't possibly have been here since Tuesday. I just saw you a couple of hours ago. You said you loved me, remember?" I practically screamed the last sentence, because I wanted so badly for it to be true.

He stared at me like I was crazy for some reason. "You think I love you? Ha. I barely know you. You must be suffering delus—wait a minute!" His eyes lit up as if he had just had a light bulb moment. "I bet somebody has been impersonating me in order to get something, or to accomplish something. But what...?" He looked at me questionably.

"I think I know." And then, I took the piece of star out of my pocket. Ever since the incident with the troll, I had put extra-strong security protection on all my pockets on all my clothes, and I had been carrying the piece of star right next to my body ever since.

Lucius gasped when he saw the piece of star. "Where did you get this? And where is the other half?"

"I saw the star fall during my astronomy lesson, and so I went to check it out. When I got to the site, the star was split into two pieces. Right as I picked both of them up, I saw Remus Lupin running toward me. Unfortunately, certain...events that happened immediately afterward made sure that I lost the other half of the star. I bring this up because I think that Remus probably has the other half of the star."

Lucius looked at me with an unreadable look in his comely eyes. "I don't know how much you know about the star, but..."

I interrupted him. "I've heard enough to know that it can be a great and terrible weapon. I also think that Remus has the other half of the star." Suddenly, my mind started to put facts together. "I think you must have been planning on collecting the star on Tuesday night right after it fell. However, other people knew about it, like Severus and Zephyr and Remus. Remus wanted the star for himself, so he trapped you down here to make sure that you would be out of the way, and then he went to get it. But I had beaten him to it, and when that troll picked me up, one of the pieces of star must have fallen out of my grasp and into the grass, which is where he picked it up."

I paused for breath.

"Troll?" Lucius asked me.

"It's a long story. Anyway, I bet he wanted the other half of the star from me. And so, he turned into you, probably using polyjuice potion, in order to get closer to me."

"I wonder why he chose my guise," Lucius commented dryly.

I suddenly was struck with a sudden fit of blushes, and I had to look down at the ground until it passed. And then suddenly, I felt really sick and nauseous. That's because the idea of what this meant had finally sunk into me. Remus Lupin had had his filthy grimy hands all over my body! I had even let him kiss me...and kiss me...and kiss me! At that moment more than ever, I was extremely grateful that I was a pureblood, because otherwise, I might have gone all the way with him! (You know how mudbloods can never keep their legs together.)

Lucius looked at me with frank amusement for a couple of moments as he watched me retch against the wall. Then, he sharply said "So, how about getting me out of here?"

Oh yeah! I had completely forgotten about that. So, I unlocked his handcuffs with a spell from my wand, and I tried not to ogle him too much as he got up from his spread-eagle position against the wall and his towel started slipping. He quickly adjusted the towel back up to his hips, then he gave me a look. I looked back at him as innocently as I could.

"I have to get out of here and find some clothes," he mumbled as he ran past me.

"Wait!" I yelled back as I hurried after him. "What about Remus and the star?"

"I'll get revenge on him as soon as I've put some clothes on!"

* * *

><p>The next morning, I awoke in my usual bed in the Slytherin common room. As soon as I put some clothes on, I ran out to find Lucius. The previous night, he had told me to go to bed and that he wasn't going to find Remus right away. And, now that it was morning, I thought that meant that it was all right to be with him again. However, he was nowhere to be found. Disappointedly, I slowly ran to the Great Hall for breakfast. I sat with Vera, talked about boring subjects, and ate French toast. After about ten minutes, I noticed Miley coming down the stairs, so I waved her over to where I was sitting. She sat down next to me with her bowl of cereal, when suddenly, Bellatrix screamed from where she was sitting at the other end of the hall "NO GRYFFINDORS AT THE SLYTHERIN TABLE YOU PSYCHEDELIC PERVS!" I told Miley to ignore Bellabitch, because she was a true Slytherin at heart. Then, Bellatrix gave us the finger. Miley and I gave each other looks like 'oh whatever.'<p>

After that, it was time for Defense Against the Dark Arts class. And guess what? Miley was in my class! We walked together to class, and I was really excited, because I knew that I would see Lucius again in class. So, I was practically bouncing off the walls the entire way there.

Anyway, when we got there, we grabbed a seat in the back because I wanted to be able to watch as Lucius walked in. However,,,he never showed! Like seriously. This made me really depressed, and I thought about leaving, until Professor walked in, of course.

Because, as soon as he walked in the door, Miley turned to me and said "I am extremely sexually attracted to that man."

I gave her a weird look. "What?" I bluntly said. I mean, come on! The man has scars all over his face. That's what I thought.

Miley looked at me as if she was saying 'please you're really going to be that immature and shallow?' Then she said out loud "Narcissa, did you know that I'm pansexual?"

"Whoa you are? What's that?"

"That means that I can be attracted to anyone, of any gender, age, race, whatever. You see, it all depends on personality. And, although that man has a very funny face, he still has a beautiful soul."

I snorted with disbelief. I was beginning to think that Disney had dumped her, and not the other way around. She was weirder than I had previously thought. But then, it was time for the lesson to start. Professor was wearing long black robes that flowed behind him as he walked like the bridal train of a bride. It created an effect that was really spooky and epic. The entire class was just enthralled by him, I could just tell.

"Class!" he roared. "Today we are going to learn about revenge. Now, as I'm sure you all know, revenge is a big component of dark magic, and you need to know a lot about it in order to effectively defend against dark magic.

I watched him, stupefied and wondering where he was going with this lecture.

"Now," he continued, "Last Tuesday, at our first lesson, I'm sure you all remember that Miss Townsend here refused to answer my question about what a Horcrux is."

I stole a glance over at Azalea. She looked like she very much regretted coming to class today.

Professor kept talking. "I want you all to imagine that I am...her lover. This is all theoretical, of course. Keep remembering that. Imagine that one night, she did not behave to my liking. What should I do?"

Severus raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Snape?"

"You should get revenge on her, Professor."

"Very good. Ten points to Slytherin. And Miss Townsend, could you please come up here. We need to do a demonstration for the class on what to do in this situation."

Azalea didn't budge from her chair. Professor then pointed his wand at her, and she suddenly changed her mind and walked to the front of the class. Professor sidled over to her and led her over to a chair. He sat down in the chair and suddenly...flipped her over his knee. I winced. I knew where this was going. Sure enough, I was right. He lifted her skirt up and started spanking her. Eight...nine...ten times, I counted. I maybe should have looked away, but the sight was so mesmerizing. The entire class watched as if they were looking at pornography on their computer at home.

After he was done spanking her, he pushed her off of him and back into her chair. She jumped up and ran out of the room crying.

"That was all I prepared for the lecture today, class," Professor said. "You may go now."

The entire class silently started filing out of the classroom. Once we were out of the tower, I turned to Miley and numbly said "What did you think of that?"

Miley looked at me with a frozen look on her face. It looked like she was in shock. "Fuck...just fuck!" She kept saying. After about ten minutes of her just saying that over and over again, she finally said "What do I have to do in order to get him to do that to me in class?"

"What?" I asked her.

"That was the fucking sexiest thing I have ever seen in a classroom. I am _so_ jealous that that demonstration didn't happen to me!"

I stared at her because that was a really crazy thing to wish. But then, I realized that if it had been Lucius and me, I would have gladly have gone for it.

Suddenly, the hallway that we were walking down started to get really crowded and full of people. I craned my neck, trying to see over everybody's heads as to why we weren't moving. I couldn't see any possible explanation, so I grabbed Miley's hand and said "Come on!" I started pulling her through the people and down the hallway. Blacks never wait for anything, and neither do their friends.

However, as soon as we got to an intersection, where the hallway crossed with another, I suddenly stopped. But that's because I had a good reason. On the wall, written in lipstick, were the words "The chamber of mysteries has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware." And beneath the writing, as pale as death and with a lipstick mark in the shape of a pair of lips on her cheek, was Andromeda.


	15. Teachers are pervs!

**Chapter 15: Teachers are pervs!**

I stared at Andromeda in shock. She laid silently on the floor with her both eyes closed. Her skin was deathly pale, and her dark brown hair fanned out from her face like rays of the sun. Her hands were clutching a white lily flower to her chest, and there was a bright pink lipstick mark on one side of her face. It looked like she was being prepared for a funeral.

Then I snapped out of it. I pushed past the people remaining between us, and ran to her side. Because even though she was a big meenie, that's what sisters are for. However, no matter how many times I said her name or slapped her, she wouldn't wake up. Suddenly, someone ran over and pushed me out of the way. "Get out of the way chile!" It was Dumbledore. He knelt at Andromeda's side next to her and started performing CPR. I was kind of grossed out as I watched him do that to her, because he's so old and stuff. But at the same time, it was pretty funny, for the same reason.

After a few minutes, Dumbledore sat back and said "There's nothing I can do for her."

I gasped. "You mean she's dead?"

He rolled his eyes. "NO! I merely meant that she has been placed under a very deep enchantment, and I am not able to wake her."

"Oh. But...if she's merely asleep, what was the point of that CPR?"

He avoided my eyes. "I have my reasons."

By that time, the warden of the infirmary, Madam Pomfrey, had arrived. She placed my sister on a stretcher, and then, with the help of Dumbledore, they carried her to the infirmary. I was unsure of what to do. I wanted to help my sister, but at the same time, I didn't know what I could do for her. So, instead, I walked back to the Slytherin common room to break the news to my other sister, Bellatrix. When she saw me walking toward her, she started running the other way. This made me want to curl up in a corner and cry, but I knew that I really needed to tell her what happened. So, I kept up the pursuit, and when I couldn't get any closer to her, I started yelling "Andromeda's in the infirmary!" She didn't believe me at first, but after a half hour of chasing her around the common room, she started to get a little tired. Finally, she collapsed on the ground in exhaustion. I collapsed on top of her and said "You can't escape from me and my uncoolness now! And believe me, our sister really is in the infirmary."

Bellatrix then started to cry. "Waaaaaah! It must be true if you were so determined to chase me around for that long."

I felt really bad for her, because although we hate each other, I know how close she is to Andromeda. They are best friends, and if the teachers are unable to awaken Andromeda from her enchantment, then poor Bellatrix will be minus one friend. Besides, Bellatrix is so popular that Andromeda probably was her only real friend. You know that kind of thing works at Hogwarts—it's just like girl cliques in real life!

After that traumatic event, I decided to look through all my history books to see if I could find anything about the Chamber of Mysteries. It was only natural that I be curious about it, as something connected to it had attacked my sister. However, I probably looked through seven different textbooks, and there was nothing! Feeling slightly upset, but not at all put-off, I decided to venture down to the library to see if I could find any information there.

I hadn't been in the library yet, so this was the first time for me. And what I saw filled me with amazement. It was huge!—at least as big as the Library of Congress, and you could actually browse in this library. Because when I went to the Library of Congress as part of a field trip, I had been expecting to be able to browse through thousands of books. However, when I got there, I learned that you couldn't actually go into the book portion of the library. And if you wanted a specific book, you had to tell a worker there, and they would go and pick it out and give it to you, and you had to read the book there. So, you couldn't check it out and take it home with you or anything. And that had really disappointed me, because I really love books and I had wanted to look through them. However, they did have a cute little gift-shop that WAS open to the public. There were some books in there, but not many. I ended up buying the fifth Harry Potter book there, because that was when it had just come out. It still has a sticker on the back that says "Library of Congress" and the price and the bar code. And I'm never going to take it off, because that's my one souvenir from like, the biggest library in the world.

Because the library was so big, I was unsure of where to start looking. Finally, I just started browsing through a segment of the library that was entitled 'History.' But even then, I was not sure of where to look because I didn't know what time period to look for.

After a little while, I gave up because it was time for me to go to Divination class. So, I packed up my bags and left for the Divination tower. When I got there, I chose my usual seat with Vera, Frank, and Amelia. According to the syllabus, we were supposed to be learning about how to read entrails today. I wasn't sure what that meant, but it must have something to do with pet therapy, because Ariana started bringing out cute puppies and rabbits as she waited for all the students to arrive for class. Once it was time for class to start, I quickly raised my hand to ask a question, because I didn't want to interrupt her once she had started a lecture.

"Ariana, I have a question!"

"Yes, Narcissa, what is it?"

"Could you please tell us about...the Chamber of Mysteries?"

Ariana suddenly dropped the fluffy bunny rabbit she was holding. She looked really startled that I had asked this question. "You must be asking this because of what happened to your sister earlier today."

I nodded my head to imply that the answer was yes.

Ariana looked really hesitant to say anything. "Strictly speaking, my brother instructed all the teachers that they shouldn't say anything about the situation to any students, but...I'm not my brother. And I think you all have a right to know."

The entire class suddenly became really quiet as everybody started listening in to hear what she had to say.

"A long time ago, when Hogwarts was first being founded, there were four founders: Helga Hufflepuff, Salazar Slytherin, Godric Gryffindor, and Rowena Ravenclaw. The four were good friends. However, Godric Gryffindor soon started to develop some mighty queer notions about good and evil. In short, he started to believe that some people were inherently good, and some were inherently evil. And of course, the other three founders dismissed this idea, because they know that everybody is just human—not good or evil.

"However, Godric Gryffindor became very angry when his so-called friends laughed at him. He didn't want anybody that was evil being taught at his school, and he thought he knew how to tell if someone was good or evil. So, he brought a beast to Hogwarts. Every night, he and the beast would roam throughout Hogwarts, placing a spell on all those they found that were evil."

"A spell?" one girl asked. "What kind of spell?"

Ariana hesitated, and then said hesitantly "It would render the victims to a form of living death. They would still be alive—breathing and such—but otherwise, they would be dead to the world."

I couldn't help it. I started to silently cry at my desk, thinking of Andromeda in that state.

Ariana continued on with her dark tale. "The victims started piling up in the hospital wing. Nobody knew what was wrong with them. They appeared to be frozen in a state of asleepness. Occasionally, one would have a nightmare and start thrashing around wildly in the bed. But otherwise, they were still. After about a week of this, Salazar Slytherin got up from his bed one night to make a pot of hot chocolate. And who do you think was standing in the doorway of his bedroom? It was none other than Gryffindor and his beast. Gryffindor had come to place the spell on Slytherin, because he believed that he was evil at heart. However, Slytherin was not going to go out without a fight, and the duel that followed was legendary. In the end, though, and with the help of his monster, Gryffindor was able to overcome Slytherin. But by that time, the sound of their firing shots had roused the entire castle. Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw ran into the room and were able to subdue Gryffindor, but they were not in time to save Slytherin. He was already under the spell, and there was no known cure for it. Well, Gryffindor was banned from Hogwarts, but before he left, he created a hidden place in Hogwarts, the Chamber of Mysteries. There, he sealed his monster, so that one day, when his heir returned to Hogwarts, he could finish what Gryffindor had set out to do—to rid the world of evil by spreading his sleeping spell."

Once she had finished, the entire class was dead silent. Then one boy raised his hand. "Professor Dumbledore, is this a real story?"

Ariana took off her glasses and started cleaning them. When she was done, she said "I have been told by my brother Albus many times that the Chamber of Mysteries is nothing more than a legend. He thinks that the attack on Narcissa's sister this morning was nothing more than a hoax designed to spread panic throughout the school. I however, believe that the legend is true. I think that this year, the true heir of Gryffindor has come to the school to finish the work of Gryffindor."

I started crying loudly then—loud sobs that shook my thin frame as the tears rolled down my face. I felt really sad that I had never had a chance to say goodbye to Andromeda. If I had known that this was going to happen to her, I would have been nicer! for crying out loud.

Ariana then brought over a cup of tea to me. "Here. It was going to be for the class after this one (they're learning about how to read tea-leaves) but I think you need it more right now.

I took the tea gratefully and started sipping it as I cried. It made me feel a little better.

"Class," Ariana said, "I'm going to let you out early today. Remember to study up on animal dismemberment, because you will be demonstrating to me next week."

The students started to leave, but I stayed at my desk, sipping the tea and staring glumly at the floor.

"Narcissa," Ariana said gently once everyone had left, "I know this is hard for you, but I thought you deserved to know the truth. I didn't want to sugarcoat it for."

I nodded understandingly. "I know. It just is all so hard to take in. And, you said there's no cure for it...?"

Ariana nodded slowly. "There's no immediate cure that we know of. However, I believe that there is in fact a cure that is lost. After all, there has been no use for it since the time of the founders. And there is no record of what they did with the bodies of the students who were placed under the spell. Because of this, I think they were cured."

"Okay," I said. Some hope started to rush back into me. But not much.

"And right now," she continued, "Andromeda has all the best healers in England looking at her and trying to figure out what is wrong with her. I'm sure she'll get better soon."

She smiled at me. I smiled back. "Thanks for the tea, Ariana. I had better get going now."

I deposited the tea-cup on a table as I walked to the door. As I was just about to open the door, I saw somebody with their ear pressed to the window on the door, listening in. It was...Remus Lupin!


	16. Lily is such a slut

**Chapter 16: Lily is such a slut**

I slammed my body against the door as hard as I could because I was trying to open it as fast as I could so I could catch Remus. He leaped away and started running away. As I chased him, I wondered, why had he been listening at the door to my and Ariana's conversation? He must have wanted to know what she had been telling me about the Chamber of Mysteries. I couldn't figure out why that would matter to him, unless if...he was the heir of Gryffindor. Actually, the more I thought about it, the more that started to make sense. After all, Remus was in Gryffindor. And he had also been trying to get the star, which could be a terrible weapon in his hands.

I chased him down a dark and stormy hallway, where suddenly...he vanished. I looked around in bemusement. Where could he have gone? But, there was no sign of him, so reluctantly, I walked back to the Slytherin common room. There, I found Vera, so I told her about Remus and how he had been listening in. Even though she could be dumb, she was also a really good listener, and I sort of regretted being mean to her lately. Vera listened with her eyes wide and with the occasional gasp in the perfect spot, and when I was done with my tale, she consoled me but had no advice to give, which was just what I had been looking for.

My next class, astronomy, was not until ten p.m., so I had some time to kill until then. So, I went back to the Slytherin common room to hang out and watch boys. However, I didn't have to watch for too long, because after a couple of minutes...Lucius Malfoy appeared! I waved at him and hesitantly grinned, afraid that he would walk away from me like he had been doing lately. But, to my relief, he grinned back at me and walked over to me.

"Hi Lucius," I said shyly. "What's up?"

"Not much. Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to go for a walk with me by the lake. There are some things I want to talk to you about."

"Really?" This surprised me and really thrilled me. But, I supposed that he probably just wanted to apologize for the icy way he had been treating me. So, I agreed and went with him.

The sun was just starting to set, and its rays painted the sky with hues of indigo and peach and rose—it was beautiful, and very romantic. Evidently, Lucius thought the same thing, because he reached down to grab my hand. I smiled up at him with pleasure, and then we walked over to stand beneath a giant oak that was by the lake. We took a seat, and I then stared out romantically at the lake, hoping he would get the idea. He did.

"I think you get more and more beautiful every time I see you, Cissa."

I turned and gazed at him. He was looking back at me as if he were deeply in love with me. And...maybe he was. I certainly hoped so. I looked back at him, right at his beautiful eyes. I noticed for the first time how they weren't completely blue—instead, there were little blue speckles all around his pupil that gave the appearance that the entire iris was blue. But really, the background color was sort of a greenish-yellowish.

And suddenly, he was kissing me. I gasped in surprise, and then starting fiercely kissing him back. I wondered briefly at his sudden change of mind—how he had gone from sarcastic, uncaring Lucius to a passionate and romantic Lucius. But I soon stopped caring as he deepened the kiss. Soon, we were practically rolling around on the ground underneath the oak tree. After a little while, we broke apart, gasping for breath. He rested his chin against my forehead, with his arms tight around me. I looked up at him and gently kissed the bottom of his mouth. And then...his hand snaked up to my neck. He caressed it gently for a minute, and then brought his hand down lower, to where the top swells of my breasts were. I started breathing a little faster, because I had never been touched this way before. Not even with pseudo-Lucius. However, his hand didn't stop there. It kept slowly going down and down, until he could probably feel the ever-beating of my heart. I closed my eyes as I tried to devote all of my senses to the feel of his touch.

"What's this?" he asked.

I opened my eyes with surprise. Then I realized that his hand could feel the secret pocket in my shirt where I had sewn in the piece of star. "That's the piece of star I was showing you earlier. Remember?"

My eyes seemed to register surprise in his face for a second, but I must have been mistaken. "Oh yeah, that must have slipped my mind. But tell me, do you know what this piece of star can do?"

"No, I don't." I murmured into his ear. "I just know that a lot of people want to get their hands on it, because it can become some kind of weapon. However, I don't know who I can trust with it, so I decided to keep it on me for safekeeping."

"Can you trust me?"

He whispered this so seductively into my ear that I couldn't resist turning my head and looking deep into his eyes. They held everything that is beautiful and wondrous in their stormy depths. "I...I think so," I said. "However, I have spelled the star into my shirt. I have special tools in my room to get it out again, so we will need to go there."

He agreed to go with me to my room, and so we got up and started to walk back up the path to the castle. On the way there, I spotted two people running around up by the castle. As we got closer, I could see that it was Remus Lupin and Lily Evans. It looked like they were playing tag, and every time Remus caught Lily, he would remove an article of her clothing.

"Lucius," I whispered, "Isn't that the guy who drugged you and dragged you to the dungeon?"

"Uh—yes, it is."

"Don't you want to do something about him now?"

"Well, yes, I do want to do something about him. But...I can't right now. Because, look!"

I looked to see where he was pointing, and I saw Professor Dumbledore, Ariana, and Professor Slughorn walking toward us from the castle.

"If I confront him in front of them, I'll get into trouble. Anyway, I have to go. I just suddenly remembered that I have class in a couple of minutes."

That surprised me. "Oh really? Well that's too bad. I'll have to show you the piece of star sometime else."

"Sounds good." He then hurried off.

The three professors then walked over to me.

"Hello Narcissa," Ariana said kindly to me.

"Hello professors," I answered.

Professor Slughorn beamed at me. "I'm so happy we caught you here just now. Because you see, I want to invite you to dinner tomorrow night?"

"What?" I gave him a weird look.

Professor Dumbledore rolled his eyes and exclaimed "It's not like that, gurl."

Ariana laughed and Professor Slughorn quickly blustered and said "Oh no, not like that! Because I am happily married." Then he leaned over and pecked Ariana on the lips.

Dumbledore made a gagging noise and said "Can't you guys save it for behind closed doors? Anyway, Nar-whatever, Horace here has this crazy tradition of where he invites certain students to have dinner with him occasionally. All together of course, so you don't have to worry about a romantic candlelit dinner with just the two of you."

Professor Slughorn gave Dumbledore an annoyed look. "I could have told that to her, brother."

"Shut up, I'm not your brother."

"Well, brother-in-law. So, Miss Black, I only ask my very best students to dinner, and you certainly qualify for that."

I nodded my head. "I think I can make it."

Dumbledore scoffed and murmured "kiss-up", but both of the Slughorns beamed at me and said "Excellent."

"You know," Ariana squealed, "I keep telling Albus and Horace how you are one of my favorite students."

"Great, it was nice talking to you. Now time to go!" Dumbledore grabbed both Professor Slughorn's and Ariana's sleeves, and started dragging them behind him.

"I'll send you a more formal invitation later today that has more information!" Professor Slughorn yelled back at me as he left.

I stared after them for a little while, thinking that the three of them made a very odd pair. Suddenly, I heard Dumbledore yell "Hey Evans! Put your shirt back on YOU SLUT!" Then I watched as Lily stumbled behind a tree in just a bra. Once the three professors had walked around the corner, I ran over to where Remus and Lily were, intending to beat Remus up for practically raping me repeatedly. However, once I got there, I realized that Remus was nowhere in sight.

"Where's Remus?" I asked Lily. She finished buttoning her blouse, and then she said, "Oh, he went back inside. Teachers scare him. Say—would you mind, not saying anything about this to James or Severus?"

"What?" I asked, thinking she was talking about the star or something.

"That you saw me and Remus playing strip-tag. I mean, both James and Severus think that I like them, and I wouldn't want to spoil that illusion."

"Lily," I asked her, "Are you and Remus secretly going out?"

She stopped, then starting wringing her dress in her hands. "Yes. But please don't tell anybody. I don't want anyone to know that I'm having anything to do with him. You see—he's awfully sweet, but he's sort of...uncool. I don't know if I'm ready to make our relationship public yet."

I nodded understandably, and then I suddenly thought wait a minute, this is Remus we're talking about.

"Lily," I said, "I don't know if you should see him anymore. He's not...who you think he is.

"What, what do you mean?" she asked me, all confusedly.

"He's just isn't really a nice person. I mean, he—"

"Lily! There you are! I've been dying to talk to you!"

I was interrupted by none other than Penelope. She ran over to us, with a short and plump rodent-faced boy following behind her. Penelope gave Lily a big hug. I cringed. Evidently, Lily didn't know. Then, Lily turned to me and said "Narcissa, I want you to meet my friends Penelope and Peter."

"Um, Lily, you do know that you just hugged a...a..."

"Narcissa. Please do not tell me that you are a homophobe."

"Oh, of course not, don't be silly, it's just—"

"Narcissa! There you are!"

I turned around to look behind me. Who could be interrupting me this time? It was...Lucius Malfoy. And he was dragging behind him...Remus Lupin!


	17. One Long Treacherous Riddle

**Chapter Seventeen: One Long Treacherous Riddle (Not the person!)**

I jumped up and clapped my hands with delight. "Oh good, you caught him! Now we can find out why he's been following me around lately!"

Lily shrieked when she saw this sight and that review ( Disgusting: If you don't like, stop reading and go jump off a bridge!). "Oh no! Please don't hurt him! I'll do anything!"

Lucius walked over to us and dropped Remus on the ground right next to us. "What should I ask him first?" he asked me.

"Ask him if he stole the other half of the star piece."

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, James appeared. "Did I hear some people arguing?" he asked us good-naturedly. "Well, that just won't do. Let's see if I can resolve the problem."

By this time, Remus was starting to come around. He rubbed his head and said "You have got to believe me. I have no idea what you're talking about! And Narcissa already asked me before about it. No matter how many times you ask me this question, I'm never going to know the answer! And that's because I didn't take anything."

Lily threw herself protectively over Remus's body. "Please believe him. I knew about the star that was going to fall last Tuesday, and I did tell him about it, but I know that he was nowhere near it."

James frowned. "Wait a minute! Last Tuesday night, when the star was due to fall, you told me that you were going to go to bed early because you didn't feel very well. So, how can you say that you know that Remus really wasn't anywhere near the star."

Remus clutched the hem of James' pants. "James old buddy, let's just leave it at that."

James frowned at Lily. "No, now I really want to know."

Lily started crying. "Okay okay! This pressure is killing me! Remus was with me! I was... ... ... ...sleeping with him!"

Seriously, I think every single person there gasped. Even Lucius.

"Lily, are you cheating on me?" James asked.

Then Lucius looked at me and said "If he was with her, were you lying to me when you told me that you saw him?"

I looked at him incredulously. Twenty minutes ago, we had been making out, and now he was suddenly accusing me of lying to him! "You faggot!" I screamed. I punched him in the stomach and then ran back inside of Hogwarts.


	18. Rape and Old Lace

**Chapter 18: Rape and Old Lace**

I cried a little bit in the common room. I was so sad that my relationship with Lucius was soooooooo rockly. After a little while, Bellatrix came in, and she was accompanied by...Miley Cyrus.

"Hey girl!" Miley said. "Bella and I are going shopping now. Do you want to come?"

I was surprised. "Bellatrix, why are you even talking to me?"

"What are you talking about? You're my sister! Anyway, we're going to Hogsmeade, so it's sure to be a lot of fun."

"Well, okay, I guess I'll go with you guys," I said doubtfully. I just really wanted Miley to like me.

But Miley put her hands on her hips and looked at me as if I was special. "Dawg please, we're girls, not guys. An besides, this is the best fucking fanfiction ever, you asshole reviewers!"

I almost started to cry, but I held it in.

Hogsmeade is the wizarding village that's right next to Hogwarts, and normally, students aren't allowed to visit there except on certain weekends. However, Miley had brought her new friend, Tom Riddle. And for some reason, he had a teacher pass, so we were able to bypass all of the security measures and get right in. The first place we went to was The Hog's Head, which was a bar where Tom bought us all beer! Strictly speaking we were all underage, but Tom used his teacher's pass to do it. And then, we took our drinks across the street to Wonko's joke shop. We all started looking around it, and I took this opportunity to ask Miley some questions.

"So Miley, are you...going out with Tom now or something?"

"Like, totally. He's THE COOLEST!"

I was surprised. "But, what about your other boyfriend?"

"What other boyfriend?"

"Well, weren't you dating Justin Bieber?"

Miley spat out her drink all over, then she looked at me with a you are so messed up look on her face. "I never dated that prick! His balls haven't even dropped yet! You're getting me mixed up with that fucking mexican Selena Gomez."

"Oh. Well sorry and never mind." I walked away, only to find...Bellatrix and Tom Riddle making out at the back of the store!

"What are you guys doing?" I asked. They quickly broke apart. Oh nothing!

"Aren't you dating Miley now, Tom?" I asked him.

"Well, yeah. Listen, I would really appreciate it if you didn't say anything about this to her."

I gave them a weird look, because Miley was my best friend. But Bellatrix was also my sister, and so I promised not to say anything. Then I looked at my watch. "Oh, it's almost ten o'clock! I had better be getting back to school for my astronomy class!"

"Do you have to go?" Tom whined. "It's a Friday night! Couldn't you skip it?"

"Yeah Cissy," Bellatrix hiccupped, "You should skip it and stay out with us all night."

I looked at her in surprise. She had definitely had too much to drink. But on the other hand, I didn't really feel like going to class, so I agreed to stay with them. Then, we all went back to the Hog's Head and got more beer. After an hour or so, we went to a hotel to spend the night because we were all really drunk and all. Giggling, we collapsed on the one bed in the hotel room tipsily. Suddenly, Tom grabbed me and...started making out with me. I struggled for a second, because I knew he was Miley's boyfriend. But then I stopped struggling and let him take over. His tongue roughly probed the inside of my mouth, and it tasted like alcohol. After a little while, he released me and then went over to Miley. He ripped off her shirt and then started taking off the rest of her clothes. I felt like I should look away or leave the room or something, but I was too drunk to care. Once Miley and Tom were completely naked, they started...having sex! Like seriously. I watched blearily, and once they were done, Tom got off of Miley and switched to Bellatrix.

Miley then grabbed me and started making out with me just like Tom had. I briefly resisted for a second, because honey, I don't swing that way. But then I thought, to hell with it. Why not make out with Miley? She was a famous celebrity and all. And I have to admit, it was kind of fun kissing her. She was a pretty good kisser too, even better than Lucius. Then her hands moved up and cupped my boobs. I then tried to push her off of me, because this was starting to get a little too personal, but she was too heavy. And then, Tom crawled over, pulled Miley off, and got on top of me. He started taking off my clothes. This made me feel a little scared, because I wasn't _that _drunk. And I didn't love Tom.

Right when I had all of my clothes off, I suddenly heard the sound of breaking glass. Someone had broken the window! I looked over, and standing there in the room with a rifle pointed at Tom's head was... ... ... ... ...Lucius Malfoy!


	19. A Brake for the Eyes

_**In a different time and place:**_

It was a very dark room. The only light came from a beam of moonlight from the window that fell on and illuminated the back of a chair. The inhabitant of the chair was bathed in shadow, yet Harry knew that the man was not someone to be taken lightly.

"You were going to tell me my mission, Headmaster," Harry said nervously.

The man in the chair stirred. "Ah yes. Harry—if you want to save the world...if you truly want to defeat Voldemort and live happily ever after, **you must use the force!** to create the savior of the wizarding world. Here is what you must do."

Harry walked over to the man and bent over him so he could better hear what he was whispering. After Harry had been fully briefed on his mission, he looked at the man in shock.

"You want me to do...that? But...that's...so mean."

"Harry, it is what has to be done. You can't defeat the Dark Lord alone. You will need to create someone to help you."

"Very well, Headmaster, I will do it."

The Man flicked his fingers, and a doorway suddenly appeared out of thin air. "I have created a time machine for you to accomplish your deed. GO NOW! and godspeed!

Harry saluted the man, and then he walked through the doorway.


End file.
